Saving Sasuke
by Crystalzap
Summary: Naruto is determined to keep the villagers safe from Akatsuki & stop Sasuke once and for all. He has a plan to save Sasuke from himself & Konoha from the Akatsuki. He tries to rid Sasuke of his past sins & turn him into a baby & it backfires, but He made a promise & he's going to keep it... no matter what
1. For Them

I Don't own Naruto or the picture that was used to represent the story

Naruto and the picture belong to their respective owners.

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Saving Sasuke

**Chapter 1: For Them**

It's late in the ninja village Konoha, there are a few patrol teams out but otherwise all is quiet as everyone sleeps, well almost everyone. No one would notice this late but on top of the Hokage Monument stood a boy no older than sixteen with a black backpack slung over his shoulders and a large scroll just below it. The boy was leaving, not that anyone knew yet. No if they knew his real plan he was sure they would stop him, but that's exactly why he didn't tell anyone, or leave any trace of it.

The boy looked down at the village he had once wished to be the leader of, to protect… to be accepted by. This would be the last time he would see it for a long time, matter of fact he fully realized that he may never see it again. He had a promise to keep though and he was going to keep it even if she never knew. The promise was originally to bring a teammate and friend back to their home village, but it had change since then.

Now he knew there was no 'bringing Sasuke back'. Not after he had joined Akatsuki, kidnapped the Raikage's younger brother and attacked the Kage summit. Even if it turned out that Bee the Raikage's brother, hadn't actually been captured it was still far too late. Sasuke had been labeled an S-class criminal with a kill on site order.

No this was the only way to save what was left of his friend but that wasn't the only reason he was leaving, that was only half the reason for his plan. He also had to save everyone else. The Akatsuki was still coming for him, like Pain had come. Just one of their members and he had destroyed most of the whole village… it was a miracle that there were no casualties, not for long anyway.

It wasn't just his friends that had protected him that day either, it was everyone. Granted not many knew where he actually was, but every single ninja that was asked refused to answer even though they knew Pain would kill them for it. They had all protected him, now it was his turn.

The blond boy said his silent goodbye to his village, his home, and turned away vowing to keep them safe. Knowing that in carrying out his plan he would be giving up everything and that it would hurt his precious people that he was gone… but they would move on in time. He couldn't just run though, no that wouldn't solve anything. To keep them safe… he would have to die.

As the blond boy who was barely more than a child ran through the forest, his eyes were set in determination and he whispered just over the wind, "For the sake of my precious people."

He knew what he had to do and where to go to find Sasuke. He had seen it when they last met, when Sakura tried to kill the Uchiha. It was where it all began and where it would all end. Ironically many things ended there, The Valley of the End. He had told Sasuke last time they met that they would both die the next time they fought, and they would. One way or another.


	2. The Valley of the End

**Alright heres the new chapter! **

**The next one won't be up for a little while but I'm working on it ;)**

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**Chapter 2: The Valley of the End**

Naruto ran swiftly through the forest barely making a sound. He was almost there and dawn was only maybe another hour away. The young blond slowed to a stop and took off his pack and the large scroll he was carrying. The boy sighed taking out an energy bar from his pack and sitting down to eat it. He wasn't really hungry actually he was nervous, not that he would tell anyone but he knew he should eat something to be at full strength.

Finishing the bar off quickly Naruto took a deep breath letting it out slowly to calm his nervous, '_There's no going back now._' he thought. '_Don't think like that! I wouldn't go back even if I could!_' he scolded himself. '_Okay I can do this_.' Naruto stood up and started making the hand signs of a familiar jutsu. At the end he bit his thumb and slammed his hand on the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Naruto called out in almost a whisper, just in case someone was nearby he didn't want to yell. There was a large puff of smoke and when it cleared Gamakichi was in front of Naruto in a sleeping cap. The large Toad groaned rubbing his eyes.

"Na-ru-toooo." He groaned quietly emphasizing each syllable and whining at the end. Naruto had a small smirk, amused at his friend. "This better be good." Gamakichi yawned. "Why are we out here?" the toad asked seeming more awake.

"Sorry Gamakichi, it's important. I'm…" Naruto trailed off for a second looking down, Gamakichi waited for him to continue despite being summoned so early in the morning. The young sage took a deep breath. "I'm going after Sasuke, I know where he'll be and I have a plan. But I'm going to need a lil help." Naruto looked to the toad, and Gamakichi nodded to him now fully awake.

"Anything you need Naruto, but are you sure you should be doing this yourself?"questioned the young toad looking a bit worried. Normally Naruto would laugh and give an encouraging speech, but he was worried too, he had a plan and it would work but first he had to beat Sasuke and not kill him in the process or you know be killed himself. He managed a small smile anyway.

"It's the only way it would work. If I brought anyone else into this they'd have to give up everything and I won't do that to them." Naruto started out slow but by the end his voice grew strong. Gamakichi grimaced at the words 'give up everything' but nodded.

"What do you need?" the toad asked slowly, but determined to help his friend. Naruto smiled, no longer feeling near as nervous as he did before.

"For now I need you to take the summoning contract and my bag back to Mount Myoboku with you. I might need to summon you or your Dad for the battle, otherwise if everything goes well I'll summon you later so you know to summon me back to the Mountain. Oh and ask Ma and Pa if it'll be okay if I stay there awhile." Naruto explained trying to think if there was anything else. Gamakichi nodded.

"Okay Naruto, and I'm sure you can stay at the Mountain as long as you like." The toad said preparing to leave. It made Naruto feel good to know he was welcome. Gamakichi had one more thing to say though, "Oh and Naruto don't do anything too stupid." The red toad smirked at him. Naruto let out a laugh then grinned so wide one of his slightly elongated canines were showing.

"Of course." He replied looking every bit as mischievous as a fox. "You know me." Gamakichi rolled his eyes.

"Yea I do." The young toad mumbled clearly remembering a few times the boy had done something stupid in front of him. "Be safe Naruto." He said a bit more seriously as Naruto handed him his bag and the toad summoning scroll. He knew his summoner would never be careful, hell he was headed straight into danger, but he hoped his friend would at least be safe about it. Naruto nodded to his favorite summon with a smirk, and Gamakichi nodded back before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

A little over an hour later Naruto sat on top of yet another kage's head perfectly still at The Valley of the End. He was facing the statue of Madara Uchiha, though his eyes were closed as he was meditating. While it may not seem like the smartest thing to meditate as you wait for a strong shinobi to come face you in battle Naruto was meditating sage chakra. Which means he would feel Sasuke coming way before Sasuke would notice him.

As if by a cue Naruto felt Sasuke's chakra at the end of his range. He was coming, and at the pace he was going Naruto estimated he would only a minute. He quickly made two shadow clones and sent them into the forest to hide and meditate for back up sage chakra. Then he went back to his own meditation, gathering in sage chakra and tracking Sasuke so he would know when to start his five minute time limit in sage mode.

Normally he'd start without it and gauge his opponent but Sasuke was different, he knew him and he knew better than to underestimate him. Naruto felt Sasuke as he ascended to the top of the statue of Madara Uchiha. The blond opened his eyes and stood seeing Sasuke standing across from him like they had when they where twelve years old, and as the very men whom stone statues they were standing on had done almost one hundred years ago.

"Sasuke." Naruto acknowledged his old teammate, without showing any emotion in his face or voice. It surprised Sasuke to see the boy he knew that used to be so loud and, well… foolish, standing before him without showing any emotion. Though there might have been a small bit of sadness. Sasuke showed none of these thoughts or the slight surprise.

"Naruto." The black haired teen answered back in a monotone voice, his face completely blank. They stood in silence for a moment waiting for the other to make the first move, but Naruto knew his sage chakra had a time limit and so he made the first move. As Sasuke knew he would but he thought it was from being impatient.

They clashed fiercely in the air above the waterfall; there was a loud clang as their kunai met. Naruto could have push forward with his kunai and push Sasuke back as he was in sage mode and stronger but Sasuke didn't know the benefits of the natural energy yet. So the blond pulled back letting Sasuke come forward a bit and kick him in the side just as Sasuke noticed Naruto's eyes were a golden color with horizontal pupils.

The black haired teen felt three ribs break as he hit the lake's surface going under the water. Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly in pain but showed no other sign that he had been injured despite the fact no one could see him under the water. He saw his one time friend on top the water waiting for him to surface, and barely before thinking about Sasuke had formed seals and launched a water dragon still under the water himself straight at Naruto.

The teenage sage jumped back as the dragon surfaced underneath him, and in mid air hit the water dragon with sage chakra enhanced powered downward kick. Turning the attack back into the harm less water started out as. Sasuke didn't real think that it would do much but was a little surprised that his attack was taken out with one kick, not that it slowed him down from jumping out of the water while the blond was busy doing it.

As Sasuke jumped out of the water he quickly used the fireball jutsu and Naruto ran to the side dodging easily. They both were now standing on top of the water facing off just waiting for the other to make a move or mistake. The fight went on like this for an hour both their attacks becoming more fierce and powerful. Naruto had one sage clone left but had been fighting without it for a while to save the last one for when he'd need it. Neither spoke to the other except to call out the names of their jutsu.

Sasuke realized if things kept going like this though he had a real chance of losing. He activated his brother's Mangekyou Sharingan and watched for an opportunity to get the blond haired Jinchuuriki to look at his eyes. It had been another five minutes and the last Uchiha was getting frustrated that his opponent had yet to look at his eyes. Almost like the baka had been training to defend against the doujutsu, actually he probably had.

The dark haired teen narrowed his eyes upset at the only thing he could think of to make Naruto look at his. He was sure the plan would work but it just seemed too much like what the blond in front of him would do, and he'd have to let the baka hit him. Naruto felt something was wrong as he started going through hand signs for another jutsu, but he just didn't know what it was, he could tell Sasuke was glaring at him though he still wasn't going to look that far up to check.

Naruto looked carefully for a trap as he released his wind jutsu. **"Gufuu Suika no Jutsu!" (Typhoon Water Vortex Technique) **called out the blond teen while slamming his wind chakra Rasengan into the lake water beneath them, hoping it would turn it into a Wind and Water jutsu. Nothing happened for a moment; Sasuke's stare clearly said he was stupid. Naruto sweat dropped as he had actually ever tried the jutsu like that.

Just as Sasuke was about to charge though, a huge typhoon arouse between the two fighting ninja. It was a massive swirling vortex of water, powerful cutting wind blades, and as tall as the Hokage tower. The sharingan user stopped in his tracks as the powerful jutsu started heading for him. Naruto held his hands in a seal desperately trying to keep the jutsu under control as Sasuke ran up the side of one of the valley's walls.

The massive typhoon crashed into the wall after the dark haired teen, making the boy fall. Sasuke flipped trying to maneuver himself mid air away from the cutting wind blades as he fell. For the most part he succeeded but it had nicked his leg enough that it would be hard to run and dodge. Naruto let the jutsu go as it was taking too much chakra, but to his surprise it exploded.

Sasuke was closer but they were both slammed back into stone from the force. Naruto wrinkled his face at his sore muscles and the bones his was sure he fractured as he got up and started looking for his old teammate. He spotted him on the ground quickly and walked toward him cautiously. The last Uchiha pushed back a groan as he felt his head pounding from where it had hit the stone wall behind him. He hadn't moved though and now he could hear what he knew was Naruto coming towards him slowly.

'_Well at least if this works I don't have to let him hit me._' thought Sasuke as he quickly came up with something easier in the new situation. The blond teen was now only a foot from Sasuke and was beginning to think it was over and his friend/enemy was out cold. He had to be sure though before he started the next part of his plan.

Naruto kneeled down and reached over to Sasuke's neck attempting to feel a pulse but before his hand made it half way. Sasuke's own hand reached out and grabbed him. Naruto was so shocked he didn't remember to look away before spinning red eyes were boring into him and it was too late.

As he felt himself being pulled into the powerful genjutsu, suddenly and without his consent Naruto's mouth dropped open a dark beam shot out turning onto a pitch black raven that hovered right between the two boys. Sasuke stared in shock, losing his blank face façade at seeing his dead older brother's most used symbol coming out from the friend he was about to kill.

Naruto gasped breaking Sasuke's grip on him and jumping to a safer distance. The two powerful teen shinobi stared as a bright light erupted from the raven, neither turned away even as the light became so bright they couldn't see through it. When the light died though and they could see again none other than Itachi Uchiha was standing between them.

"Itachi?" the younger Uchiha managed to ask the brother he thought he had killed. The older brother smirked slightly at the teens normally closed off confused face. Then he turned facing both teens.

"Yes, and no. I am the part of your brother that he left with Naruto." answered Itachi even as he flickered transparently. Sasuke narrowed his eyes and closed off the rest of his face, as Naruto's eyes widened when he realize that this was what Itachi had done that day he found the missing nin in the woods.

"Why would my brother leave part of himself with Naruto?" asked the younger Uchiha with a hint of anger as he quickly glanced at the blond before turning back to the now transparent form of his brother. Naruto looked at Itachi for an answer to this as well, while the fading figure looked amused.

"Because he made a promise to me, more or less, you never break your word, right?" Itachi turned to the blond smirking. Naruto looked dumbstruck and Sasuke was wondering what the hell the baka had promised for his brother to do this. Whatever this was?

"You promised you'd find a way to do both. To protect Konoha and Sasuke, remember. And today it seems you have found a way to do just that." The fading Uchiha smirked at their dumb looks. Naruto was looking shocked because Itachi spoke as if he knew what he had planned; then again part of the bastard had apparently been with him for a while. Sasuke was going over each word wondering when and why the stupid promise had been made, he didn't need protecting.

"Sorry little brother." Itachi turned to the dark haired teen. "That day I gave Naruto a gift that would activate to help him fulfill his promise, if he stayed true to his word. Since he has when this part of me fully dissipates while he will still be affected by other versions, Naruto will never again be able to be trapped in the Mangekyou Sharingan's Tsukuyomi." (The unbreakable Genjutsu)

For once Sasuke and Naruto had the same expression, one of total shock and confusion. The blond of course was the first to speak.

"But why? Why would you do that?" yelled the Jinchuuriki. The dark haired teen stayed quiet, his old teammate had said everything for him. He wanted answers too. The older Uchiha was almost completely gone, but shook his head amused.

"Because despite everything you will keep your promise, however unorthodox the method." Itachi smirked then continued. "But more than anything I believe you're the only one that can save my brother," Sasuke's eyes narrowed, he didn't need saving. "even if it's from himself." Naruto said nothing, he couldn't think of anything _to _say. They both watched in silence as the last bit of Itachi Uchiha faded away.

Neither boy spoke for a moment, as they let what had just happen sink in. Naruto was immune to the Tsukuyomi, and it had been none other than Itachi Uchiha that had made it possible. Finally Sasuke broke the silence.

"He seemed to imply you have a plan?" Sasuke asked curious but not showing much of any emotion now that his brother's message was gone. Naruto didn't answer right away, this was his chance. Sasuke had become weaker through the battle, his reflexes slower and now the Tsukuyomi couldn't even affect him. Naruto though still had one more clone in sage mode.

"Yeah." Naruto finally answered almost happily, and smirked. Showing more emotion than right then towards him since their battle had begun. Sasuke had no time to think about it though because as soon as the word left the blond's lips his eyes rimmed with red and turned gold again. Before the dark haired teen knew it the Toad Sage was upon him. His Sharingan barely following the movements, he body couldn't react in time to stop the blow to his solar plexus.

Sasuke looked up glaring at the young Toad Sage angry he had been too slow and wanted to know just what 'plan' his old baka teammate had come up with. The Uchiha's eyes turned back to their original dark color as the red of his bloodline receded. Less than a second after Sasuke was out cold. Naruto had been staring into the other boy's eyes the whole time and sighed, relived when he saw his rival go limp.

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**AND CUT!**

**kara hikaru : Sorry but the summery was supposed to be cryptic, couldn't give too much away ;)**

**heather XD : Thanks! I'm glad you checked it out :D**

**Ayushina : I hope so, and keep reading! XD**

**Nika : Thanks great I love to hear ppl loved my other fic and read more of my stories :D But no it's not a time travel ^_^' it's a family fic. **

**Poland huh it's so cool to think ppl read my fics so far away :)**


	3. Second Chance

**Thanks for all your reviews! :D  
**

**Alright here is a new chapter for everybody hope you like it! ;)**

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**Chapter 3: Second Chance**

Naruto lowered Sasuke to the ground so he wouldn't fall and just stared for a moment, he could hardly believe it. He had done it, finally he had beaten Sasuke. His class's number one rookie, his teammate, his rival… and once even his best friend. The blond had been trying for as long as he could remember to beat Sasuke at something, anything and now… it just had to happen like this.

The young Sage sighed as he went to tying the other teen up, careful to make sure they wouldn't be gotten out of easily. Then he pulled out two seals he had made just for this occasion, and put one on each side of the last Uchiha's chest from his open black shirt. One would paralyze Sasuke and the other would keep him from molding chakra.

As he felt his Sage powers leave him, Naruto looked back down at Sasuke again and let out a breath feeling tired. It would be so easy to just take him back to Konoha right now; he probably wouldn't even wake up before they got there. The blond's eyes narrowed. No, he wouldn't do that. The village would still be in danger with one of the two last Jinchuuriki being there and Sasuke wouldn't ever be free again, if he wasn't flat out executed.

Naruto used his favorite jutsu making five clones, which almost made him fall to his knees panting after the battle he'd just fought but he managed to stay up right. The clones grabbed Sasuke and brought him across the lake to the Shodai Hokage's side of the valley. Where there was a more open spot with less rubble from the attacks that had damaged most the area in some way. The original followed slower trying to regain some of his energy.

After the clones set Sasuke down Naruto threw them a scroll with supplies in it, and they got to work creating a massive array around the last Uchiha. About an hour later Sasuke started to stir and blurrily opened his eyes to six Narutos, now if he hadn't seen it before he would have thought he hit his head harder than usual. Instead he tried to focus on the real one which he was pretty sure was the one meditating as the others worked… drawing some kind of seal? Around him; '_Not good_.' was his first thought seeing that.

Naruto opened his eyes a moment after he sensed Sasuke start to wake up. Thanks to the Kyuubi and the meditation he was taught by the toads he was almost back to his normal charka level, though his body was still fairly tired. The blond looked at his clones' handy work, it was almost done. He stood up and looked over all the details carefully to make sure there were no mistakes. Because even the slightest wrong loop here or too big a smudge there could be disastrous.

"What are you doing? I would have thought you'd have me half way to Konoha by now." Sasuke ask getting frustrated with the seals on his chest that he realized was keeping him from moving much besides his head, as he was lying on his back. The blond turned to him and frowned when he said Konoha.

"No, I'm not taking you back there, at least not for a long while." Naruto said in thought walking over and crouching by the other boy. Now Sasuke was nervous, just what did he plan to do with him then? "You've made that impossible, with how you tried to capture Bee and take him to Akatsuki. And _Then _attacking the Kage summit meeting. No one would just let you 'come back' and honestly I don't think you would make it easy…" The blond teen paused as Sasuke made no indication otherwise.

"Even if I got Baa-chan to refuse to execute you, and the other countries to stay out of your case as you are officially Konoha's responsibility. You would still most likely be a prisoner the rest of your life…" Naruto spoke as if he had thought about it for a long time, and stood up brushing himself off as he finished.

"Then why? If you know it's a lost cause why did you even come?" The dark haired teen asked with no emotion, back behind his carefully made blank mask of indifference. Naruto looked away slightly up toward the sky but answered.

"Because I promised I would… and because there is always another way." At the end the Jinchuuriki turned back and looked at him grinning like a fox about to play a trick. Suddenly he remembered what his brother said '_despite everything you will keep your promise, however unorthodox the method._' Though his face showed nothing Sasuke was really starting to worry, looking the best he could without being able to move at what the clones were making.

"Just what is it you plan to do with me, Usuratonkachi?" Sasuke glared putting a bit of venom in his words, at feeling helpless because he couldn't move, angry at himself for loosing and nervous about just what Naruto thought he was doing. The other boy didn't know whether to glare or grin at the insult; it had been a while since he heard it… well from Sasuke anyway. He smirked.

"I am going to give you a second chance, well more like a new first chance. If this works right that is, otherwise I might just kill us both trying!" Naruto put a hand behind his head chuckling as Sasuke deadpanned; pretty sure it would be the second one. He decided to focus on the first one instead though, even as the clones dispelled signaling they were done.

"What do you mean 'new first chance,' that makes no sense." Sasuke asked back annoyance clearly in his tone. Naruto was walking around him inspecting the large seal under him. Once he made a full circle and got back in front of his captive audience he made a small humming noise remembering what he had been asked, as Sasuke's eye twitched slightly in annoyance.

"Well you'll probably freak out, but I meant just what I said. You won't remember this life or what happen to your family, you won't be looking for revenge…" Naruto paused as he saw his once best friend's carefully blank face become angry at the word family; he could feel the killer intent in the air. "And if it works right you will look a bit different, so no one will ever guess that it's still you." finished the blond as he knelt down by the large seal and started going through hand signs.

"What gives you the right to do this! Naruto!" Sasuke yelled losing his composure as he saw the hand signs. Even without his Sharingan he watched and noticed that they had been in order. How they're meant to be, but after the going through all twelve hand signs the blond started doing them backwards from last to first. "What if this isn't what I want!" he screamed again, the other boy looked at him.

"It is. You won't be alone anymore; you'll have people that care about you. The only thing you have left now, after what you've done is imprisonment or death." Naruto said quietly concentrating on the jutsu. Sasuke went silent at that, he honestly could say he didn't want that, but it was too late wasn't it?

"Why? Why do you go so far for me, even after what I've done?" the captive teen asked now looking up at the blond in complete confusion. Naruto smirked remembering very similar words coming from his friend three years ago in the same place.

"I told you before; you were my first real friend Sasuke." Naruto looked up briefly to see his friend still looking just as confused as before, their eyes locked. Then he looked back down as he finished the hand signs and called out the name of his newest jutsu, one he'd spent more time on than any other jutsu.

"**Shin Seikatsu Jutsu!** **(New Life Jutsu!)**" Naruto called out slamming both his hands down on the seal and pushing his chakra into it, as Sasuke's head shot up hearing the jutsu's name. The large seal began glowing a bright blue as the young sage pumped even more of his chakra into it, making sure it was only his and not Kyuubi's. This was far too important for him to use such vicious chakra.

After a few minutes, that Naruto would swear felt like hours, he was sweating as he continually pushed his chakra into the combined jutsu and seal. The glowing seal marks were slowly crawling up Sasuke's body and the teen's jaw clenched as the burning chakra from the seals moved on his skin. Sasuke felt his body contracting like he was shrinking and panicked though he knew it was much too late to do anything.

Naruto saw his old teammate getting smaller and felt relief; he thought he actually might run out of chakra before it was done. He still had only about half his chakra left though so it would be cutting it close, but he should just make it. The blond started to smirk when Sasuke had regressed to the intended age but stopped and concentrated back on his task. He had already made Sasuke forget everything after the age he had turned him back to but he still had to change him a bit so he wouldn't look the same.

The young sage's eyes narrowed as he shifted the position of his hands on the seal, and focused his chakra so it was more precise and controlled; messing with genetics was very risky. He had made it not as dangerous by going around certain parts that were harder but it was still tricky. However he was using the DNA from the blood seal to do it, the blood was of course Naruto's own it wasn't like he could use that much of someone else's and seal was large. Even if he could they'd want to know why.

As he was trying to manipulate Sasuke's DNA however something went wrong. The seal started pulling more of his chakra, and quickly. Naruto hadn't done anything to change Sasuke's genetic makeup yet so he pulled back and tried to not panic long enough to figure out what was wrong. The large intergraded seal on and around the other boy was pulsing a very bright blue now and the blond couldn't make it stop sucking out his chakra.

Then it tried to pull on the Kyuubi's chakra and Naruto harshly smash the fox's presence back down, the malevolent energy disappearing quicker than it had started to come. '_I am too close and will NOT let that damn fox ruin it now; I just have to get the seal back under control._' Naruto thought struggling with his unique creation.

The blond's attention snapped up to the other boy when he realize part of his chakra wasn't going straight to the Uchiha… it was going next to him, and now glowing brighter than the rest of the seal almost white. His chakra was almost gone now, but just before he blacked out from exhaustion the seal glowed even brighter so that he couldn't see and let out vortex of pressurized power. It hadn't hit Naruto as he was partly in the seal but everything around them looked like a bomb had gone off. Then Naruto collapsed unconscious as the seal finally stopped taking his energy.

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**AND CUT! Okay guys don't forget to review!**

**BTW: **

**heather XD : It's supposed to be a surprise :P **

**Nika : Thanks for your review!**


	4. A Balanced Gift

**Hey this one is a bit shorter than the last but... it just seemed like a good place to leave off :P**

**Happy reading! ;)**

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**Chapter 4: A Balanced Gift **

Naruto started to shift groggily at the sound of someone… crying? The boy got up off the ground tiredly but quickly remembered what had happen; the sun was setting so he must have been out all day. He turned until he found the source of the crying, and then stopped frozen. There wasn't just one crying infant inside the seal that he remembered making the day before, there were two.

The sixteen teen year old sage walked slowly into the seal approaching the newborn babies. He stopped right in front of them completely stunned, one looked exactly like Sasuke which he was expecting since he never had a chance to change that but it was the other that had him holding his breath. The other baby, that wasn't supposed to exist in the first place, had sunshine blond hair and slightly tanner skin then the black haired baby.

However what really caught Naruto's attention was that the boy had two whisker like birthmarks on each cheek… the same way he had three on his own cheeks. They were both newborns that was easy to tell as the babies were so small, and still looked a little blue. Both also had traces of blood on them, most likely from the blood seal under them.

Another weird thing was the way they were laying; they looked like the yin and yang symbol. Upside down from each other, one with blond hair like the white dot with tanner skin, and the other with black hair like the black dot and lighter skin. Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts as the blond baby that resembled him so much cried louder.

"Okay, it's okay lil guy." Said the teen gently, he had always been good with kids if Konohamaru and the kids he had to babysit on 'missions' were any indication. He bent down taking off his orange and black jacket and wrapped it around the blond baby, doing the same with his red sage cloak and the now baby Sasuke.

Both babies quieted down now that they weren't so cold. Naruto made a clone and it picked up Sasuke while the original picked up the little blond, the babies stopped crying seconds after being held to something warm. Naruto and his clone jumped back with the babies away from the seal and Naruto still holding a child that looked an awful lot like him used one of the few fire jutsu he knew on every inch on the large seal where Sasuke's old clothes were so they were also fried.

"We need to get out of here; I've been gone for almost the whole day they might have realized I'm missing and sent someone after me by now." Naruto spoke mostly to himself and handed his clone the blond child he had been holding. With his hands free he bit his thumb and summoned Gamakichi. The toad arrived in a big cloud of smoke.

"Naruto! What happened! I was waiting all night!" fumed the toad, he had actually been worried.

"Sorry Gamakichi, I kinda blacked out and just got up a few minutes ago." The teen explained sheepishly, still looking a little tired. Then the clone with the infants caught the young toad's eye.

"Alright, what's with them?" asked the toad quickly changing the subject with his curiosity. Naruto turned to them.

"Um, well there're… complicated. But right now I need to get out of here before someone finds me. So could you summon me back to the mountain and we'll talk there?" Naruto said looking around as if someone would find him any second. Gamakichi frowned but nodded, and looked at the babies again.

"If you plan to bring them with, you have to cover them in your chakra, and hold onto them." explained the young toad.

"Thanks!" called the teen as the big toad dispelled. He went to do as his friend said and dispelled his clone after taking the infants. He cocooned his chakra around the small newborns and took one more look at the partially destroyed Valley of the End before he was summoned to Mount Myoboku.

"Today Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha died at the Valley of the End." He whispered as he disappeared.

Hours later Naruto had explained everything to Gamakichi and the two old toad sages Fukasaku and Shima (Pa and Ma toad). In detail from when he left the village to how the seal acted up and what he wanted to do now. Fukasaku shook his head.

"It's amazing; some people devote their whole lives trying to create new life. And here you do it on accident." sighed the old toad but he still looked a bit amused. "Your seal didn't 'mess up' Naruto-chan, you did. I don't know much about seals myself but I do know they must always be balanced. You tried to take an almost fully matured body and turn it into a baby, and then tried to put in some of your own genetics. While it was all for a good cause you were putting too much in without taking anything out. The seal it seems balanced itself by taking some of what you gave it and… well making him with it. " Fukasaku nodded toward the sleeping blond child.

"He seems to be mostly you though, the only difference is he only has two whisker marks on his cheeks instead of three and I don't sense even the slightest trace of Kyuubi's chakra in him. While the other boy looks like the Uchiha; just smaller and without any memories but you still could have changed his genetics." said the old toad thoughtfully.

"You should have both of their DNA checked." Shima put in. Naruto frowned in thought.

"I know and they should be looked over by a doctor anyway but I can't go back to Konoha, for Baa-chan to do it." explained the boy sadly. "I'll have to find a doctor somewhere away from any ninja villages." he stated. Shima (Ma toad) frowned worriedly at the boy.

"Naruto-chan you know you don't have to do this, you can still go back to Konoha." She spoke with concern clear in her voice and her husband nodded. Naruto got up and smiled, he really didn't feel like smiling but their concern was touching and he wanted to reassure them.

"No I can't. Its better this way, I can't keep putting them in danger. Not until I'm strong enough to protect them. Besides I still gotta figure out what to do about Sasuke and… chibi me. I should really get him a name." the last part was mumbled but everything before sounded like he could've been talking about the weather. The old toads sighed catching onto how the boy was acting and knew he wanted to go back but also knew he wouldn't. As he had already convinced himself it was best for everyone. So they changed the subject.

"Well he does look a lot like you, you could call him Toshi." Shima recommended a name that meant 'mirror image'. Gamakichi snorted.

"Yea or you could call him Yukio!" the larger toad laughed at the name that meant 'gets what he wants' and Fukasaku chuckled. Naruto pouted at them.

"I don't always get what I want!" the blond half yelled half whispered to not wake the babies. The younger toad stopped laughing enough to talk.

"_You_ got Tsunade-sama to become Hokage when no one else could. _You_ turn that sand kid from a psycho killer into someone that became a kage. And _you_ just brought back Uchiha Sasuke, just like you said you would… sort of." finished the toad as he looked back at the baby Sasuke and chuckled. Naruto sat back on the floor and pouted but soon there was a small smirk on his face and the older toads chuckled.

"Okay but were not naming him that." Naruto stood up and picked the tiny blond baby up; he couldn't have weighed more than eight pounds. The teen was still awed at how much the boy looked like him. Shima saw him just watching the infant sleep and smiled, maybe this would turn out to be the best jutsu seal flaw ever made.

"You should name him, Naruto-chan." Everyone looked to her confused, "By all rights he is yours. He has your blood and you made him. Maybe not in the conventional way but you did; and you're already attached." Shima spoke softly but without any hesitation. Gamakichi raised an eyebrow while Fukasaku smiled and nodded but Naruto looked like he had stopped breathing. The teen looked back down at the boy in his arms.

'_Is she serious? I mean I've always wanted a family, but I can't take care of a baby. Can I? I'm just a kid! But she's right it's obvious he has my blood running through his veins… I can't just abandon him. He'd be alone… I couldn't live with myself if I did that to someone, and I… __**want**__ to keep him._' The older toads saw their young summoner's eyes sharpen taking on a determined look that they were happy to see.

"I want to keep him." Naruto stated his voice clearly said he was going to and the toads smiled. The teen looked back at the child in his arms and smirked turning back to his audience. "And his name is…"

In Konoha 

"Damn it!" shouted Tsunade slamming her hand down on her desk. "Where is he!"

Flashback 

In the morning Sakura had gone over to Naruto's apartment to see why he hadn't been around the day before. She had already looked around the village for him and no one had seen him, so she knocked on his door for a good five minutes before breaking the lock and barging in. The pink haired girl looked all around but her teammate was nowhere in sight.

Sighing Sakura was about to leave when she spotted a letter open on Naruto's bed just begging to be read. The pink haired girl frowned, wondering if she should read it or not finally she shrugged hoping it could tell her where her missing friend was. Reading it silently, her eyes got wider with every line and she had to force herself to keep reading. When she finished there were small tears in the corners of her eyes and she ran out the door as fast as she could headed straight to the Hokage tower.

End Flashback

Tsunade rubbed her face her whole body tense from nerves and re-read the letter again.

_Hey guys,_

_I don't know who will find this first but just know that this was my decision no one forced me and no I wasn't caught by the Akatsuki. Now I bet your wondering what I did well, I went after Sasuke. Sakura if anything happens don't blame yourself, it wasn't just because of my promise to you that I'm doing this, I want to. I will save him, whether he wants to be saved or not. Yes I remember we said we'd save him together, sorry… Maybe one day I can tell you why I couldn't bring you._

_Baa-chan, yes I do have a plan. Don't be mad! It's a good plan! …If it works. Anyway this will be better for everyone you'll see! I can't tell you my plan or it would really mess it up but if I survive everything will be fine, if not… well Madara will have one less biju and a ruined 100 year old plan. _

_Kakashi-sensei sorry about all this, your students must give you grey hair! Haha! Iruka-sensei try not to worry too much. And everyone thanks for everything, it meant more to me than any of you could imagine knowing that you all stood up to Nagato and protected me… _

_Naruto Uzumaki_

_PS: Remember what Kakashi-sensei __always said about me _

The Godaime glared daggers at the letter, trying to find something, anything that hinted what Naruto had done or where he was. She had already sent tracker ninja after him, including Kakashi with his summon dogs, and Sakura just in case something happened. Which something probably did.

At Mount Myoboku 

"And his name is… Jiraiya." Naruto finished softly hoping the toads would be okay with it since they were close to the old sage too. All three toads looked surprised especially the older two but within seconds their faces melted into contentment.

"It's perfect, Jiraiya-chan would be proud." Fukasaku nodded to him. Naruto let out a breath as the other two nodded their consent as well and he turned back to the infant he was holding and grinned at him.

'_That settled, but then… what about Sasuke?_' Naruto thought lifting his head to see his sleeping newborn best friend, yea like his life wasn't already complicated.

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**AND CUT!**

**To suzanne : Thanks for your review! and I hope everything was answered in this chapter ;)**

**Now I only got like 5 reviews last chapter T_T and they motivate me... so hit that button... pweety pwease (Irresistible Puppy-eyes jutsu)**


	5. What about Sasuke?

**Hi everybody!**

**I just looked at everything I've been writing for the story and realized it was time for an update so, here it is! ;P**

**BTW For anyone that doesn't know 'Rai' will be used as a nick name for Jiraiya, pronounced just like in the name Ji-'RAI'- ya**

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**Chapter 5: What about Sasuke?**

Tsunade tried to compose herself after she dismissed the tracking team that she had sent after her most powerful Genin… and one of her most powerful ninja in general. Kakashi was in charge of the mission so he gave her his verbal report, telling her everything they'd found.

Flashback

Kakashi, Sakura, Hinata, Kiba and Akamaru were jumping from tree to tree toward the fire nation's border following Kakashi's summon tracked dog Pakkun. Kiba and Akamaru were getting déjà vu from the Sasuke retrieval mission and going in the same direction wasn't helping either. None of the group said much as their worry, anger and confusion settled in their minds about what their comrade had done. Kakashi was also having a bit of déjà vu; he just hoped he wasn't too late this time.

They arrived quickly as Pakkun led them to where most of them had been expecting since heading in the direction for so long, The Valley of the End. They all stopped swiftly though as they saw the damage and stared in awed horror. It looked like a bomb had gone off. The sides of the valley were mostly destroyed, the statues were the only things that looked to be intact almost as though the two monsters that had been fighting agreed to leave them be, only a few cracks here and there.

It was the largest crater that caught their attention though; Kakashi ordered everyone to spread out and search, including all his ninja dogs that he summoned as he examined the crater. Despite all the scorch marks over most of it he caught sight of some blood. He was about to call one of his dogs over to check if it was his student's blood but as he blew away some of the dirt around it, he stopped suddenly. It was a blood seal.

Flashback End

The team had stayed there for hours looking around for any sign of their comrade. They found a few scraps of his jacket and the blood seal that all the ninja dogs and Kiba agreed was Naruto's. Along with a few bits of blood that was confirmed to be Sasuke Uchiha's. But there was no scent leading away from the scene, or any other trail. They even tried looking at the bottom of the lake and found nothing more, and so had to return with the bad news. That all they knew was Naruto had met Sasuke at The Valley of the End, they fought, Naruto used a blood seal and now Uzumaki Naruto was MIA, Uchiha Sasuke had disappeared again and both could very well be dead.

Naruto Unknown Town

"Ugh come on! How can there be so many different kinds of baby food!" Naruto called out exasperated. A dark haired girl nearby that worked there heard him and giggled to herself before walking over to help.

"Can I help you sir?" the girl asked smiling. As he turned to her though she blushed taking in his appearance. He had sunny blond hair that spiked up cutely and sapphire blue eyes that were deep yet cheerful as if had been through too much but still had the heart of a child.

"Um yea." He replied brightly. "I was looking for baby food but… um I don't really know what kind I'm supposed to get…" he chuckled a little embarrassed. She smiled wider holding back a laugh.

"Well do you know how old the baby is?" she asked trying not to giggle at him. '_Sixteen._' Naruto thought smirking but decided to go with the more believable and more helpful answer.

"They were born earlier today." Naruto said keeping the '_more or less_' off the end. The girl seemed to brighten at the news though.

"Really that's wonderful!" the girl chirped happily. "Well then this should be good." She said pulling down a canister of formula that said 'newborns' on it. Of course Naruto almost smacked himself for not seeing it. "You don't want to feed them baby food for a least a few months. Wait how many are there?" she asked realizing he'd implied there was more than one.

"Um two." Naruto said now looking at the diapers. The girl smiled widely.

"Twins! How sweet. Oh here you're going to want a few of these." The girl grabbed an extra canister of baby formula, a few packages of diapers, some bottles and a pack of pacifiers, then loaded it all into Naruto's arms. He had stopped when she said 'twins'. Where the two babies really twins, he really needed to get their DNA checked.

"Uh thanks." He said as he walked quickly to the checkout before he dropped anything. On the way out he spotted some stuffed toys and after thinking for less than a second grabbed two teddy bears. He got himself summoned back to Mount Myoboku within a few minutes, and quickly read the directions and made bottles for the two crying infants.

"Finally." Naruto sighed feeding the baby Sasuke, while Shima was feeding little Rai-chan. '_Man was that weird to think about, he was feeding his best friend turned traitor that had been trying to kill him turned innocent day old baby.'_ It was obvious Sasuke didn't have any memories from before; but since the jutsu had gotten a bit messed up Naruto had been watching both babies to see if they were acting weird. Neither showed any signs of any higher intelligence yet.

After having diapers put on, being bathed and bottle fed though Naruto was sure if Sasuke or Rai had any conscious memories from before they would have done something by now. It had only been a day though so Naruto had agreed with the two old toad sages to keep an eye on them for a little while just in case.

With Tsunade

The Godaime had summoned the entire rookie 9 minus Naruto and Sasuke, the old Team Gai, their sensei, and Iruka. Basically everyone that had been close to Naruto, luckily they were all in the village. She hadn't spoken yet preferring to act like she was looking at her paperwork as she tried to find the words she needed.

A few of the sharper ones like Shikamaru, Shino and Neji seemed to realize one of them that would normally be there was missing. Sakura and Hinata were looking down they already knew what it was about. Kiba knew as well since he'd been on the mission too but for once he said nothing. While Kakashi was actually waiting for the Hokage to speak without pulling out his perverted book.

However Ino, Chouji, Tenten, Lee, Gai-sensei, Kurenai-sensei and Iruka-sensei didn't seem to have any idea what was going on. Finally Tsunade spoke.

"As some of you know Uzumaki Naruto left the village three days ago either late at night or early morning to meet and possibly retrieve Uchiha Sasuke." The ones that didn't know looked stunned, but she continued before they could ask any questions. "A rescue and retrieval team was sent after him later that morning before nightfall they'd followed his trail to the Valley of the End and found traces of both him and the Uchiha there. However the trail ended there." The Godaime stopped for a moment letting everyone take the information in.

"Two days ago I sent another team out to examine a seal that the first team found." She had everyone ones full attention, but some looked more concerned as others looked annoyed the blond went without telling anyone. "What they discovered was the seal that Naruto had made was unlike anything our sealers have ever seen. Despite the fact most the seal had been burned off they could still tell it had been activated but don't know what it did. However they found one more thing, some blood samples that we thought were from Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha seemed to be… different."

"Tsunade-shishou, what do you mean 'different'?" Sakura looked up more, a small spark of hope that the anomaly would be a clue to finding her missing teammates. Kakashi was also curious what had slipped passed his ninja dog's noses. Tsunade frowned.

"I'm not sure yet. I've been looking the samples over and while each sample seems to have a full set of DNA for either Naruto or Sasuke it's almost like part of each them is clinging to the opposite's genetic makeup." She turned to Kakashi. "Which is most likely why your summons didn't notice a difference, they would mistake it as some of Naruto and Sasuke's blood accidently mixed into each other instead of something _different_." Kakashi nodded and the Hokage turned back to everyone else.

"Anyway I've called you all here because, you all know to some extent Uzumaki Naruto. Therefore I thought you should be the first to know he is as of this moment MIA." Most the people in the room felt their hearts sink, as they all knew that meant he could very well be dead. "Dismissed." Tsunade called and everyone started shuffling out of the room in a daze until everyone was gone but Sakura. The Godaime looked at her waiting for an explanation.

"Hokage-sama, I request permission to examine the samples that were found." stated the pink haired girl bowing her head slightly in respect. Tsunade would have smirked if the situation was less important but it was _Naruto_ who was missing. He was the one that got her to come back to the stupid village, and she wasn't letting him off the hook that easy. They would find him.

"Permission granted. But be careful we only found a limited amount of the blood anomaly." Tsunade replied.

"Hai." Sakura said as she gave a quick bow before leaving to look at what she hoped would lead her to her last loyal teammate.

At Mount Myoboku

Naruto groaned; he was so tired. It had only been three days and he was mostly healed from his fight with Sasuke and his own seal sucking the life out of him. No it was those damn chibis'! They had started screaming at four in the mourning… again. Normally Naruto wouldn't be so tired but a combination of his body trying to heal and being woken up so early every morning and kept up late every night, well he was ready for a long nap. And it was only noon.

'_Finally, they're both asleep._' Thought the blond teen as now both babies, Rai and Sasuke were sleeping peacefully together in their make shift bed made of pillows and blankets in the old toad sages hut. Figuring it was the only quiet he was going to get for a while he took a nap with them.

A few hours later Naruto awoke to Ma toad whispering his name. "Naruto?" she called trying to get his attention without waking the babies. The boy sighed and rubbed at his eyes yawning as he sat up.

"Yea?" The blond yawned again as he stopped rubbing at his eyes to look at the old toad. She smiled at him thinking about how young he seemed.

"You need to feed the babies they'll be up and hungry soon." Shima told the teen nodding to the boys cuddling up to each other in their sleep. Despite how tired he had been Naruto smiled happily at the babies, they were truly innocent. Without a care in the world other than to eat, poop and sleep, never thinking something bad would happen or they would be hurt. As he got up to get the bottles ready Shima asked him something that he wasn't so sure of.

"Naruto-chan? What about Sasuke-chan? You wanted to keep Rai-chan but are you going to keep him too?" The old toad asked watching him making up the bottles. Naruto slowed in making them as he thought.

"… I don't know… I mean in the beginning I was going to change the way Sasuke looked and give him to a family to raise away from ninja and was going to check in on him while I hid from the Akatsuki, but now he still looks the same. I mean he's younger yea, but if anyone recognized him they would either know it was him or think he was Sasuke's son. Either way they might want to kill him for revenge…" Naruto didn't speak for a long moment and the old toad left the boy to his thoughts as he fed the infants.

After he fed the boys they were already back asleep laying on their backs and leaning against each other. Naruto just sat there and watched them sleep thinking. '_What am I supposed to do…? I could still give Sasuke to a family away from the ninja villages and probably no one would find him, but if someone did he'd be defenseless… They'd kill him and this all would be for nothing. But I can't raise him… I already got the other me to take care of and I'm only 16 and I'm hiding from a terrorist group of S-class missing nins… and he's my best friend, as stupid as that sounds._

_How could I even think of raising him, he's __**Sasuke.**_' Naruto pulled himself from his thoughts to focus on the infants sleeping in front of him, more specifically the small boy with dark hair. The boy looked so peaceful just like when he was sleeping earlier. Naruto had never seen the Sasuke he knew with such a content look on his face, even while sleeping he noticed on missions his friend looked troubled.

The teen sighed; honestly he had no idea what to do, what was right or wrong in this situation. Everyone was now calling him 'The Prophecy Child' the one that could bring peace to the world, like he was supposed to know all the answers. Yea right, but he knew one thing he didn't go through all this for nothing, and no matter where or how the two small boys in front of him grew up that he would keep them safe.

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**AND CUT! **

**For ppl that don't know Jiraiya means "Young thunder" Rai means "Thunder" :P  
**

**To **

**hedwigfan : Thank you and no they will not grow up with the toads, but they will know the toads :) However they will grow up as brothers you'll see! (And don't worry about your English, it's much better than my Spanish ^_^')**

**narutofan5 : lol thanks and yea the surprise is what I was going for, after all Naruto always was more likely to do something and have the outcome 'unexpected' than what he was trying to do :P The most surprising ninja an all ;)**

**rrdfhdtg : Thanks! :D**


	6. DNA Add Ons?

**Okay ppl I just got a review with someone asking me to put up a new chapter... so I did**

** really sometimes thats all it takes, I just write until it seems like everyone had time to read the **

**last chapter and put up the new one... **

**Anyway please tell me if its ok I proof read it one more time before updating :P  
**

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**Chapter 6: DNA Add ons'? **

Naruto walk down the path to the civilian doctor he had heard about with a month old baby in each arm. He'd spent the last month looking after the newborns and asking through the towns he went to for supplies about finding a good doctor. There were lots of recommendations but this one seemed to be the best, apparently the doctor could do medical ninjutsu but wasn't a ninja anymore. So people would come as far as three villages over to be treated by Dr. Kazuki.

Little Rai and Sasuke had their eyes open wide and were looking innocently all around them at everything. The world was so new to them all they had ever seen or felt was each other, the toads and their favorite person the one holding them. He was the one that look care of them, and was the one most like them. The toads were nice of course and both Rai and Sasuke thought they were cool but the one holding them was different, he looked more like them just bigger. If the little boys knew the word they would say he was human.

The sixteen year old blond hummed as he walked carrying his new two favorite people. He'd grown quite attached to them over the month they'd been together. After he got better at knowing what each boy wanted they began sleeping through the night, and so did he. It was still weird thinking of the black haired baby as the old Sasuke and taking care of him, but every time he looked at the little boy he couldn't help to think of his old friend and wonder if he made the right choice.

After a few weeks Naruto decided to think of the black haired baby more as Sasuke's son than Sasuke himself. It made since in a way, Sasuke could've had a son that looked like him and the boy could've been named after him, and it was less weird that way when he had to change his diapers. He would never forget the truth and knew one day he would have to tell Sasuke and Rai just how they were brought into this world, but hopefully they'd be out of diapers by that time.

It wasn't as awkward with Rai despite the fact the kid could pass for him as a baby. He at least knew the kid wasn't him, because of the one missing whisker on each cheek. Plus the fact that _he_ was still him and the boy had a different name. Naruto thought about changing Sasuke's name and knew it would help him but just couldn't, doing so to him would be like… forgetting who he was before, forgetting his friend. While Naruto knew that was the point so that it would be harder for enemies to find Sasuke, he just couldn't.

"Alright guys, we're here." Naruto spoke happily to the infants even though he knew they couldn't talk back. He wasn't even sure himself why he held one sided conversations with them but he'd seen the toads talking to the babies, and he was always alone as a kid so he didn't really like the quiet and had started thinking out loud sometimes. Just to hear his own voice fill in the silence.

Naruto quickly **Henged **himself into someone with pitch black spiky hair a bit longer than his own, without whisker marks, and he was now wearing normal civilian clothing. Rai and Sasuke blinked at him seeing the change and began giggling while trying to touch his hair. Once he'd gotten their little fingers out of his hair, which were extremely strong for infants he might add, Naruto made his way into the village and straight to Dr. Kazuki's clinic.

"Hi, I'm looking for Dr. Kazuki." Naruto said as he walked up to the receptionist. She smiled up at him as she answered him.

"I'm afraid the Doctor is with a patient but he should be done soon." She paused grabbing something, making Naruto tense on alert. He was a shinobi on the run after all. "Here, you can fill this out over there, while you wait." She finished handing him a clipboard. Which he grabbed with his hand as his arm supported Rai, and then he went over to the chair to look at the papers. He sighed, he really couldn't fill much of this out for Sasuke, but there wasn't two anyway. So he just filled it out for Rai and avoided questions that would be more information than he wanted to give out before gaving it back to the receptionist.

Ten minutes later Dr. Kazuki came out with that very chart and called for a Rai Uzumaki. Naruto beamed hearing his son's name for the first time and stood up with both babies following the doctor into a room. Now the sixteen year old blond was a little nervous how was he going to get the doctor to do what he needed without giving too much about the boys and himself away?

"Now what have you come for today?" asked the doctor. Mentally shrugging Naruto decided to start with the easy stuff.

"Both these little guys need their newborn checkups." The teen explained gesturing to the babies. The doctor nodded and told Naruto to place them both on the exam table, which was thankfully cushioned. Then he started asking questions as Naruto practically hovered protectively over the infants.

"How old are they?" asked Dr. Kazuki.

"One month, both were born on October 23rd." Naruto replied he didn't think giving the real day they were born or 'made' would make much of a difference.

"Have they had any shots?" the doctor marked down the answers and went into asking medical questions. Completely ignoring the fact the infant's father was a teenager; kami knew as a doctor he'd seen many teen parents. Dr. Kazuki checked the boys over and gave them a few shots, that they did _**Not**_ like. Naruto waited till the end to speak up.

"Hey Doc, can you check their, um DNA?" Naruto asked quite bluntly, as usual. He wasn't even exactly sure what DNA was. Just that it was 'genetic makeup' the reason you had your parent's hair or eye color, or the shape of your nose, mouth, and sometimes even your temper; like he had his mother's temper. The only reason he had attempted to change it in Sasuke was he study _exactly_ what he needed to do, anything else he'd have no idea.

"Sure, but I'll need blood samples. Anything particular I should be looking for?" The doctor assumed it was to check if the kids were really his, he'd seen many fathers do the same with young babies. Naruto bit his lip not knowing how to put it.

"Just look for anything… odd. Oh and could you compare it to this, and my blood? " asked the blond holding up a blood stained cloth. The cloth had the original Sasuke's blood on it from the outfit Naruto had been wearing when they fought at the valley. That and the fact it was Naruto's own blood that was used in the seal, should be enough to give him some answers.

Of course the Doctor didn't have any idea why he wanted a bloody cloth compared to the babies, but didn't bother to question it more than raising a questioning eyebrow which Naruto promptly ignored.

"Yea. Well I'll do the testing tonight so the results will be ready tomorrow." Dr. Kazuki replied, he usually didn't do blood work that fast but now he was curious. Naruto let out a breath in relief that is until he saw the doctor had a syringe and needed his blood too. He made a face and gulped. '_Ninja are not afraid of needles, ninja are not afraid of needles.'_ He repeated to himself.

In Konoha

A month… it had been a month. Sakura thought as she stood on her patio staring at the Hokage Mountain. She could hardly believe it had only been a month since Naruto disappeared with Sasuke at the Valley of the End, she had looked over the blood sample anomalies and every other piece of what had been found at the valley so many times…

Sakura sighed all the evidence was starting to blur together now, it was probably a good thing Shizune kicked her out of the hospital's lab to get some rest. Maybe if she let her head clear some she would see something she missed. What was really bothering her though, was that there had been no news of Naruto or Sasuke at all.

If either of them were… alive, wouldn't at least Naruto be trying to get back? Sasuke would probably go back into hiding but wouldn't someone have seen Naruto? Every day she didn't hear any news the more she started to think that her teammates killed each other… that there was nothing left to find. After the last time they all met and Sasuke tried kill her, she had no doubt that he would do the same to Naruto… but would Naruto kill Sasuke.

Normally she wouldn't think Naruto ever willing to do that, but she remembered that last thing Naruto said to Sasuke. '_Next time we fight we will both die._' Sakura frowned her heart sinking. She didn't want to believe what Naruto had said and brushed it off as him being his dramatic self and didn't even ask him about it. Now though she wished she had, maybe if she paid more attention, put more thought into what they were going to do about Sasuke… maybe then she'd know what happened.

Tears came to her eyes and she choked almost silently on them before biting her lip and pushing the sadness down. _No, she wouldn't cry. Not yet, to cry meant that they were dead and she was mourning them. They weren't dead at least not Naruto, Sasuke could be in hiding and had tried to kill her before, but Naruto… he wasn't dead until she found a body. _

Sakura wiped away the tears from her face sniffling slightly and went back inside to sleep. Tomorrow would be another day, to beginning her search again.

In Suna

The Kazekage was in a bad mood, it had almost been three weeks since he found out Naruto Uzumaki went missing after a battle with Sasuke Uchiha. He had stopped snapping at his subordinates after a week when his siblings had pointed it out to him, but he was still restless. The red head had seen how powerful the Uchiha had become but… he had heard rumors of Naruto's strength as well.

A ninja battle could be decided with one mistake though… He was sure Naruto wasn't dead, Gaara didn't know why but some part of him refused to believe the blond was dead. Gaara had made announcement to all his ninja that if they spotted Naruto to inform him and if possible depending on the importance of their mission to bring the Jinchuuriki to him.

Other than the fact he was worried, which he'd never admit, Naruto was one of Akatsuki's two last targets and needed to be under protection. To the young Kazekage's frustration though no one seemed have caught a single glimpse of the teenage toad sage.

Unknown Location

Zetsu quickly traveled through the ground back to the Akatsuki's base, to give his report. He soon arrived and pulled himself from the ground beside Madara or Tobi as most Akatsuki members called him. Then Zetsu waited to be recognized.

"Report Zetsu." Madara ordered almost immediately but didn't move an inch otherwise even to look at him. Zetsu didn't hesitate even though he knew his master wouldn't be pleased.

"The Hachibi is being concealed on the turtle island and is heavily guarded." Zetsu stated but that wasn't the part he knew would upset his master.

"And the Kyuubi?" Madara prompted impatiently. Zetsu took a deep breath this was the part he didn't want to report, but bad news was usually best to get out quickly.

"The Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki it would seem left Konoha about one month ago. His last known location was at The Valley of the End. Konoha reports as well as evidence at the scene indicate he was fighting Sasuke Uchiha. However neither has been seen since and Konoha has officially declared him MIA." Zetsu finished bowing his head and hoping his master didn't 'shoot the messenger' as they say.

"You can't find him?" The old Uchiha asked surprisingly calm at the bad news, but Zetsu cringed slightly at the question. It was his job to know where all the targets were at all times.

"Not at the moment, the Kyuubi's chakra is faint. I believe he may be somewhere protected, but he is still alive." Zetsu stated quickly but with no emotion, he didn't really have emotions. He was made only to serve his master and for that he didn't need such useless things. Madara didn't speak for a while thinking over his options. After a few minutes he finally relented to what he already knew, they couldn't move forward without the Kyuubi.

"Keep looking, report back each month or if you find something. Look for Sasuke as well he may know something. Now go, everything depends on finding that boy." Madara ordered and Zetsu bowed before quickly slipping back into the ground, to continue his search. The Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki couldn't stay hidden forever.

Madara sat and thought after his subordinate left. Without the Kyuubi his plans would stop dead in the water, but he had waited a long time for this, so the boy would be found no matter how long it took. The old Uchiha though couldn't help but smirk, Naruto Uzumaki and his own descendent Sasuke Uchiha had been fighting again at the Valley, again.

They were so much like how he and the first Hokage had been. One cynical and hating the world only wanting the power to control it, and while the other wanted to change the world he didn't want to control everything. He thought foolishly that there could be peace without force. Now though Naruto Uzumaki was the one who thought that there could be peace while Sasuke only want revenge.

Honestly if the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki could turn his descendent to the blond's way of thinking, Madara himself may have reconsidered what he was doing. He knew though there was no possibility of that, Sasuke had been too changed by grief, pain, and hatred. Too obsessed with revenge to ever be changed and forgive his enemies. Like so many others… but that was the point, that was why Madara had started his plan.

Well there had been the whole wanting revenge on Konoha and his clan for betraying him, but he'd already taken revenge on his clan and Konoha. They were still suffering from Pain's attack despite that fact the fool brought everyone back to life there still had been much damage done. Now though he'd have the power to stop anything he didn't want and everyone would be under his control then there will be no need for war.

Ironically he was starting a war to end war, talk about your double standard. There was no way the Kage or any of their ninja would give up their freedom, not even for peace. That was exactly what Madara was doing though trading freedom for peace, only it wasn't just his freedom he was trying to trade, it was everyone's.

Naruto – Mount Myoboku 

Naruto yawned as he got up and stretched. The two babies making soft cooing sounds together a few feet away from him in their makeshift crib. The teen smile at them and rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he went to the kitchen to get them each a bottle of formula. '_Finally,'_ he thought. '_Today the test results will be done and I'll find out what happened when that jutsu went crazy._'

The sixteen year old came back to the infants with a bottle in each hand and stuck them in the waiting babies' mouths. Holding onto both even as the two tried to push their hands up to hold their own bottles by them self. Naruto smirked they were only a month old and already competing to see who could hold their bottle first, whether they knew it or not.

"Hey guys, we're going out today, back to the doctor to get your test results." Naruto spoke to them even though he knew they wouldn't talk back for a while. Sasuke made no move to show he cared as he continued draining his breakfast but Rai made a face, clearly not pleased. Naruto just looked amused back at him.

"Don't worry were just picking up some papers, no needles, promise." Naruto assured as if the boy had voiced his disapproval. Rai didn't look convinced but went back to his bottle. A few hours later Naruto was at Dr. Kazuki's office back in his black haired **Henge**, with both boys dressed and attentively taking in everything they could see, smell, or touch.

"Rai and Sasuke Uzumaki." The nurse called soon after they arrived. Naruto got up but suddenly stopped as he realized what she'd said. She'd called not just Rai but Sasuke 'Uzumaki' like the baby was _his_. It was an odd thought and feeling but as he felt Sasuke squirm and giggle at him he knew it was okay, different, but okay. He walked quickly to where Dr. Kazuki was waiting for him to make up for standing there like an idiot.

The Doctor shut the exam room door behind Naruto for privacy. The young ninja in hiding tensed at being confined further but made no motion to bolt, yet. Dr. Kazuki noticed being a former medic ninja and raised his own inner sense for danger just in case but said nothing about it. Instead of putting the boys down on the table Naruto held them protectively ready for anything. The doctor saw this and lowered his guard slightly, whoever the kid was he didn't look like he wanted a fight with the two boys there.

"Ahem, well the results of the blood samples you gave me were interesting to say the least." Dr. Kazuki stated ignoring the earlier apprehension. Naruto blinked dissipating all remaining tension as if it was never there at all.

"Really? How so?" Naruto asked eagerly. Sasuke took this moment to reach over and pull his new brother's hair. Rai of course started screaming his little blond head off. Naruto almost jumped looking down at the sound and narrowed his eyes as he saw the problem.

"Sasuke!" Naruto snapped at the baby. "Don't pull Rai's hair." The teenager said firmly to the innocent looking face of the dark haired baby that still had his hand in a firm grip in Rai's hair. Sasuke could tell the one he thought of as his father was mad at him, but wasn't sure why.

Naruto frowned and put Sasuke down on the padded table to free his hand and carefully pulled open Sasuke's small fist so that Rai was finally free. Rai cried into his father's jacket softer after being release and started calming down. Naruto glared at Sasuke for about two seconds to show him he was upset, and then left him on the padded table as a punishment as he held Rai.

Little Sasuke understood now why his daddy was mad at him. He'd grabbed Rai's hair and made him cry. Sasuke pouted his bottom lip trembling; he hadn't meant to make Rai cry. His brother's hair was just so pretty and bright like Daddy's. He just wanted to hold it, he didn't know he'd hurt Rai.

"AH!" Sasuke suddenly cried out almost as loud as when his brother had. Naruto looked down and mentally sighed, these kids were gonna put him in the nut house faster than any organization out to kill him ever could. He instinctively wanted to pick Sasuke up but, that was supposed to be his punishment…

Tears streamed down Sasuke's pink little face. It wasn't fair, he didn't mean to hurt Rai, and now his Daddy was mad at him! He didn't want his daddy mad at him! Sasuke cried louder, and Naruto finally broke, giving in and picked Sasuke back up. He couldn't stand to hear Sasuke cry like that.

"Shh, it's okay Sasuke. It's alright." Naruto whispered, rocking Sasuke and forgetting the doctor he was suppose to be giving his attention to. Dr. Kazuki watched patiently through the babies' cries and the teenager trying to fix the situation, until it all was calm again. He cleared his throat and Naruto's head snapped back to him.

"You'll be a great Father." The doctor stated giving a small smile while Naruto's face went slack in surprise. "As for the blood analysis, the results are quiet… unique."

In Konoha 

Sakura went right back to the hospital in the morning and on her way in she ran into her old sensei Kakashi. He had just been walking to the hospital for his mandatory sixth month check up, when they spotted each other by the front door.

"Kakashi-sensei, good morning." Sakura greeted him, even though he was no longer her sensei she and Naruto both called him that. Kakashi's visible eye curved upward as he smiled at her.

"Good morning Sakura." He greeted back as they went inside. They we're about to separate to their different routs when Kakashi grabbed Sakura's attention with a hand gesture. She stopped and came back a bit, getting closer to hear him better.

"Sakura, a few of us are getting together at training ground seven around sunset today to talk about finding Naruto. You should be there." Kakashi said no longer looking like he was in a good mood but was acting like he didn't care about what he was saying. That seemed to be how he dealt with things though. Sakura stilled as soon as her teammate was mentioned but nodding her consent to coming. Kakashi nodded back and walked away.

Only a few seconds later she was walking swiftly down the hospital halls back to research everything that was found where Sasuke and Naruto disappeared. The added knowledge that it wasn't just her trying so hard to find out what happen to her teammates fueled her to find something they could use, even more. Because maybe if she found something, _anything,_ her or one of the others would be able to get a clue out of it.

Naruto – Doctor's office

"So what you're saying is that some of _my_ cells are attached to Sasuke's genetic makeup and some of the cells from the sample on the cloth I gave you has attached to Rai's genetic makeup?" Naruto asked what seemed to be his millionth question. Dr. Kazuki nodded patiently, though on the inside he was irritated, he knew what he was explaining was a bit technical but really he'd been explaining it for the last hour. Well at least the boy seemed to finally get it.

"Yes, and because of that Sasuke-chan and Rai-chan may grow into some of the stronger traits from those cells. For example right now Rai-chan looks almost identical to you but within the next year his eyes may change color, or Sasuke-chan's. When they're a little older they _should_ stabilize incorporating the stronger cells into their genetics. I say _should_ because I've never seen or heard of anything like this happening." Dr. Kazuki said staring at the two boys as if he were studying them.

Naruto listened to every word but by the end he didn't like the way the older man was looking at his boys. Like he wanted to do tests on them or something; it was time to go. He had enough information, and had already given this doctor far more knowledge of the situation than he felt comfortable with.

"Alright well we should be going now, but I'm going to need that file." Naruto said cautiously. He didn't know if he was actually allowed to take the file but he couldn't leave that much information about Sasuke or even Rai lying around. The doctor looked confused and unhappy, but handed the file over without too much fuss.

"Oh and I'd appreciate it if you didn't ever speak of this again." Naruto said over his shoulder on his way out. It sound almost normal but there was a small edge to the 'request' that the doctor caught. He only nodded his consent, he didn't really know who he would tell and the teen had just taken his only evidence anyway.

Unknown Location, Two months later

Zetsu's face had taken to scowling lately. It had been three months since he had sensed the Kyuubi and his Jinchuuriki. That meant he'd had to report no news back to his master, Madara Uchiha twice. Zetsu wasn't sure how many more times he'd survive.

The only thing he could think of was when he'd barely felt the Kyuubi's chakra over in the mountains, but it was so far away he couldn't pinpoint it and then it was gone. That was last month and he'd got no other clues since, even when he'd listen in on some of the conversations in Konoha. No one seemed to have any idea where the Jinchuuriki was… though many were looking for him. So they probably found out somehow that he didn't die.

If Zetsu had any emotions he would have sighed in exasperation, but since he didn't he head towards his only lead. Heading towards the mountain area he'd last sensed the Kyuubi in. He already knew it was a big mountain range but he would soon find out just _how_ big.

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**AND CUT!**

**okay this one was a little longer than most of the other chapter so I hope you like it! ;P**

**To my anonymous reviewers: **

**narutofan : Thank you! :)**

**hedwigfan : I'm glad you think so :D**

**The last one didn't leave a name but reviewed on 2011-7-25 : Thanks for reminding me to update ^_^'**

**I appreciate your reviews a lot especially because stories like this don't have a large fan base built up & don't get as many...  
**


	7. Three year olds

**Okay a few of you thought that I was going to change Sasuke or Rai's appearance, and while thats tempting they are going to stay mostly the same as **

**the original Sasuke and Naruto were. A few minor things in their looks will change but you would have to look twice to notice. I want them to be able **

**to be recognize for my own reasons but they will both inherit traits from the opposite gene pool ;)  
**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Three Year olds**

It had been three years since Naruto Uzumaki went MIA and Sasuke Uchiha wasn't reported seen afterward either. What was left of the rookie nine plus Kakashi, Tsunade, Kurenai, Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, and Iruka had made a pack to keep an eye out for Naruto, and share any information they found with each other… they hadn't found a trace.

Naruto was now nineteen years old, living in a small civilian village with his three year old twin sons. It was a bit too close to the sand village but he'd managed to not attract too much attention… though they'd only lived there about a month. The blond sage master had left Mount Myoboku about six months after his and Sasuke's 'mysterious disappearance'. He'd been moving every 6 months to a year ever since, honestly he was surprised they hadn't been recognized, or he hadn't been recognized yet.

After all who would connect a toddler to 'Uchiha Sasuke, powerful, missing Konoha nin.' Until Sasuke and Rai-chan were older he just had to worry about not standing out himself. In this village he was keeping up a small **Henge** around his face and hair, so that his hair while still spiky looked black and the whisker marks on his face couldn't be seen. Both made him stand out too much and having black hair would at least make it look like Sasuke was related to him.

"Tou-chan!" Sasuke and Rai-chan called in harmony rushing into the kitchen where Naruto was looking in the fridge. Honestly for not being completely natural twins, they had that weird talking at the same time thing down perfectly… they probably practiced just to freak people out.

"Um?" Naruto hummed acknowledging their presents while still looking over what there was to eat.

"Can we go to the park, Tou-chan?" Rai asked with hope shining in his eyes. Sasuke wanted to go badly too and they both waited with rapt attention for their answer. They hadn't seen the park in the new village they were living in so they were even more excited than normal. Naruto looked at them but knew as soon as he did he wouldn't be able to say no.

"Are all your toys picked up?" Naruto asked hoping to at least get something out of the deal. Rai and Sasuke looked at each other nervously thinking they wouldn't get to go if they told the truth, but knowing perfectly well that their father would check. They hung their heads.

"No…" The boys said at the same time again, and even in the same tone. Naruto smirked, in a few years they'd use that just to annoy people… if they weren't already.

"Alright then guys, go pick up your toys and we'll go to the park as soon as you're done!" Naruto clapped, as if a signal both boys rushed to their choir.

"'Kay!" they shouted back together. Naruto just smiled and shook his head thinking at least they weren't as… mischievous as he'd been as a kid, yet anyway. They _were_ only three. Within ten minutes they were back, done with the task he'd been telling them to do all week, though most the stuff on the floor was Rai-chan's. The two toddlers practically pulled the 19 year old ninja out the door.

Once they were about half way to the park Naruto grabbed both Sasuke and Rai-chan and put one boy on each of his shoulders. They laughed and each grabbed a tiny handful of his hair to hang on. Naruto put them on his shoulders almost every chance he got; he may not have ever been lifted high on anyone's shoulders but he was happy and proud to hold up his sons and show them off.

Some of the young women he walked by looked at him and the boys blushing and giggling. He smirked knowing that they thought he was 'cute.' More than one girl had come up before, in other towns when he was playing with one of his sons just to tell him so. Sometimes he hung out with them, went on a date or two. He even spent a few 'late nights' with some of them, but he never really took a real relationship with any of them.

To do so would mean he'd have to tell which ever girl the truth about himself, Sasuke, and Rai-chan. Even if he found a girl that wouldn't run away screaming after that though, he had to find one he actually liked and could trust with not only his life but his sons. Naruto just hadn't found _that_ girl.

As Naruto felt Rai-chan's hand grip is hair tighter he glanced up at him, the boy looked nervous. Glance toward Sasuke-chan Naruto saw that he was looking at everything with pure curiosity. The teen could really figure it out Rai-chan was a lot like he'd been like as a kid at home but when around other people he didn't know he tended to shy away.

Naruto had tried to not compare Rai to himself but at time like this he couldn't help but wonder if the villagers hadn't ignored him and he never felt the need to make people see him, would he have been shy too? Then as he took in Sasuke's obviously curious nature he wondered if Sasuke hadn't been born into an elite clan where he was supposed to always control his emotions, would he have shown his inquisitiveness so openly?

The spiky haired teen pulled out of his thoughts as he saw the park. Putting Sasuke-chan and Rai-chan down slowly as his eyes scanned the grounds for any trouble. He was technically a missing ninja, hunter nin could be after him at this very moment for all he knew, like Akatsuki wasn't enough. As soon as Sasuke-chan and Rai-chan's feet hit the ground though they were off, innocently oblivious of any danger.

Despite Rai's nervousness he was right behind Sasuke racing to the slide, as Naruto watched them and the area. It was a small village so the park wasn't much, just a few swings and a slide, but neither boy seemed to notice as they played. It had been half an hour since they got there and Naruto was just about to call the boys back to get lunch when he scanned the tree line again and saw a blur. He froze, it was a ninja.

There was no doubt about it, but did they recognize him? Did he need to get them out of there? Should he act like he didn't see anything? All good questions but without knowing if they had seen _him_, he couldn't give any good answers, but it was definitely time to go.

"Rai-chan, Sasuke!" Naruto called sharply. His tone far more harsh than usual caught the 3 year olds' attention instantly and they ran back to him quickly. Naruto grabbed one of each of their hands and walked swiftly toward their apartment, hushing their questions. He wanted to pick them up to assure himself they were okay and nothing had happened, but refrained knowing if it came to a fight he'd need his hands to protect them.

Sensing the urgency Sasuke and Rai were both unusually quiet on the quick trip back home. Once inside their little two bedroom apartment the three year olds looked to their father in question. Naruto ignored their confusion for the moment and summoned a clone who went straight to work.

"Come guys, we gotta get your stuff packed. We're leaving." Naruto said quickly ushering the toddlers to their room and pulling out their backpacks.

"What? But why, we just got here Tou-chan?" Rai asked with a whine even as he grabbed his favorite teddy bear to make sure it didn't get left behind.

"Yea, Tou-chan what's wrong?" Sasuke asked grabbing a teddy bear almost identical to his brother's but had a blue bow tie while Rai's bear had a red one.

Naruto didn't slow in grabbing the boy's stuff piling it up on scrolls and throwing the scrolls in the boy's backpacks, somehow getting all the right toys and clothes in the right packs. Still he answered carefully but without lying to his sons, he just might omit certain things so they didn't get too scared.

"Boys… there are some people that are looking for me, us, and one of them might of just spotted us. Which means we got to leave, and fast." Naruto spoke quickly as he finished throwing the last of the three year olds thing in a scroll and stuffed it in Sasuke's backpack. The clone he'd made earlier came in and dropped Naruto's own pack on the floor before dispelling itself.

"What, but why are they after us? What do they want?" Sasuke asked with Rai listening intently. Naruto almost groaned as he grabbed his bag, Sasuke was only three but he was already smart. They didn't used to ask so many questions… they didn't used to talk.

"They're ninja Sasuke. And they want… " Naruto trailed off not wanting to say it. They wanted to either bring him back to Konoha or if it came to it possibly kill him… and if they recognized Sasuke, he didn't even want to think about it. "They want me, Sasuke." Naruto finished not wanting Sasuke to think the boy himself was in any danger.

Naruto then created three clones and had two of them transform into the three year old twins but made their features a little different so that hopefully if they were caught no one would recognize Sasuke, they hadn't been seen up close after all. The clones nodded knowing their task and headed out the door.

"Why?" Sasuke and Rai asked at the same time. Naruto bit the inside of his cheek and frowned, how could he say it, how could he explain it right to his sons? His still very young sons.

"Boys… you know how I was a ninja?" at their nod Naruto went on. "Well a long time ago a friend, my best friend he needed help and I tried for a long time to find a way to help him, and finally after 3 years I thought I had it. A way that could actually save him, but to do it… I had to leave my village…" Naruto pulled both boys onto his back, one on each side.

The clones had enough time anyone watching should have followed them. Naruto went out the window and ran on ground level to not been seen as easy and headed straight out of small town. "Ninja villages don't let one of their ninja just leave." Naruto continued his story once they cleared the village gates. "Ninja know many secrets about their homes and if they go to another village and tell them those secrets… well it wouldn't be good."

Rai and Sasuke were listening with their full attention to the story as they held on tightly to their father. Naruto ran at high speeds through what was spares grass into golden sand. Knowing full well they were too close to the sand village. Well since Gaara was Kazekage he might not be killed on sight at least, if they see him at all that is.

"So when a ninja leaves their village without permission the village sends out what are called 'hunter nin' to bring them back, or…" Naruto stopped before he said something that would give his sons nightmares. It was too late though.

"Or what, Tou-chan?" Rai asked quietly as if he already knew but needed to be sure. Naruto tried to come up with a way to answer without saying the words 'dead' or 'kill' but didn't come up with anything too much better to say.

"Or they make sure no secrets are able to be found." The teen said gravely. Naruto felt Sasuke's arm tighten around his neck just before the boy whispered.

"They kill them." Sasuke whispered scared and Rai must have heard because his grip on the blond teen tightened to.

"They want to _kill_ you Daddy?" Rai asked sounding so small even as all his little muscles seemed to try and hold on tighter to his father, as though if he just held on tight enough no one could take his daddy away. Naruto on the other hand smiled softly, it was time to pull their thoughts away from all this depressing stuff.

"Don't sound so scared Rai-chan, it won't come to that. After all who would be able to get you in the bath but me!" Naruto said and Rai giggled forgetting what he'd been thinking about. Sasuke was still thinking though.

"Did you save him?" Sasuke suddenly asked pulling Naruto's attention from teasing Rai.

"Huh, who?" Naruto asked but immediately knew who his son was talking about. Sasuke answered though, quiet used to his father seemingly forgetting what they were just talking about… sometime he thought his father did it on purpose.

"Your bestest friend, did you save him Tou-chan?" Sasuke asked again, Rai of course was instantly interested too. Naruto wasn't sure how to answer, looking into the very eyes of the person he'd wanted to save he felt extremely guilty.

"I… No, not really." He'd realized it months too late but that day, at the valley he'd killed his best friend. "I did what I had left to do, but it didn't save my friend." After a few months with the baby Sasuke, Naruto realized just what he'd done. It wasn't just Sasuke's 'Uchiha' name he'd killed off or even the bad memories, it was his best friend too.

The little baby Naruto had been looking after for three months at the time wasn't the boy he went to the academy with; wasn't the one he'd glare at over their desks. The baby wasn't the dark haired boy that would brood where ever he was and ignore every girl in class, he wasn't the one he'd fought with. That baby wasn't ever Naruto's teammate, and had never train with him night and day till they could barely move.

The dark haired baby wasn't the one that had jumped in front of a possibly lethal attack to save him. The little baby that cried and pooped in a diaper every day wasn't the boy he'd fought with at the Valley of the End, twice. He… wasn't the best friend Naruto tried so hard, for so long to get back, he wasn't Sasuke Uchiha. That was when Naruto realized he'd killed his best friend the dark haired baby was just the only thing left… and Naruto would protect him with his life.

"Who was he Tou-chan?" Sasuke asked pulling Naruto from his more depressing thoughts. Naruto smiled almost sadly and slowed down to looked at the three year old.

"He was Sasuke Uchiha."

Elsewhere

Temari couldn't believe her luck. She was just heading back from a B-rank mission to escort some noble when she took a short cut through a little village and spotted a guy she was pretty sure was Naruto Uzumaki. The kunoichi almost didn't recognize him at first. His hair was black and the tell tale whisker marks were nowhere to be seen, but the way he moved, he moved like a ninja, that caught her attention enough to slow down and take a second look. Then she heard it.

"Sasuke, wait up!" a little boy cried out and Temari's head snapped to him. The boy had bright spiky blond hair, sky blue eyes and two whisker marks on each side of his face. The kunoichi's eyes widened the little boy couldn't have been more than three, four tops but he looked exactly like she knew Naruto did, except for missing one more whisker mark on each cheek.

"Come on!" the boy that the blond boy had been shouting at called back and Temari's eyes went to him. Her jaw dropped when she saw him. The boy had short dark black hair with two bangs on his forehead, dark eyes and a slightly pale completion. She didn't know what to make of it when the boys ran around laughing and shouting, the boy with black hair looked like he could be a younger version of the traitorous Sasuke Uchiha.

It just didn't make since though, he was running around having fun like any little kid, and she really didn't think the stoic Uchiha she remembered could pull off acting like that so well. The man that moved like a ninja scanned where she was with his eyes and she quickly jumped away as quietly as she could. She was sure he saw her though because he tensed ever so slightly and a moment later he called the boys that had caught her attention, back to him.

"Rai-chan, Sasuke!" the ninja with black spiky hair and sky blue eyes that matched the little blond boy called. Sure enough both boys whipped their heads to him and quickly went to him. So that was their names, Sasuke and Rai. It couldn't be just some coincidence that a boy that looked so much like the Uchiha had his name, unless it was the others boy's but she highly doubted that.

The ninja with black spiky hair grabbed both boy's hands quickly and left the area. Temari followed, her younger brother Gaara had been really upset when Naruto disappeared, so she knew he'd want any information that could lead to him. When Temari looked closer at the teenage ninja she smirked there was definitely some kind of jutsu around his hair and face. If that guy wasn't Naruto she'd eat sand… if she told Gaara and he wasn't she really would eat sand.

Sure enough the teenager and both boys came out a few minutes later with packs on heading out of the village. She followed them; really there was little choice if she just went home to report it they'd be long gone by the time anyone got here. She didn't even have time to send a message, or she'd lose them trying to write.

Unknown to her after a few minutes of her following the, what she'd later realize were clones, the real Naruto slipped out with Sasuke and Rai.

Naruto, Rai & Sasuke

"Sasuke U-chi-ha." Rai mouthed quietly pronouncing the last name slowly. Little Sasuke looked more surprised though and was staring at Naruto. After rolling the name over his tongue Rai turned to Naruto too.

"But Sasuke's my name!" The three year old stated. "Was I named after him Tou-chan?" Sasuke asked immediately after. Rai the whole time was paying attention, even though he usually had a short attention span. Naruto was grateful for the easy answer; he was kind of named for Sasuke anyway.

"Yea." Naruto said shortly with a small smile and nodded. Sasuke bit his lip thinking whether he liked who he was named after or not, but the only thing he really knew was that the guy was his Tou-chan's best friend. So he decided he needed more information.

"What was he like?" Sasuke asked. Naruto blinked surprised feeling like something shifted in his brain; he didn't expect a question like that. After a second though there was a smile on his face, it barely reached his eyes but it was genuine.

"He was my teammate; he looked a lot like you." Naruto nudged the dark haired boy making him smirk happily. "Sasuke wasn't very friendly with most people though, he liked to stay to himself; probably because his family all died when he was very young. We didn't even get along in the academy; it was only after we were stuck together on a team for about a month that we stopped fighting all the time.

Not that we didn't still fight, we did. We just didn't do it as often. I think we became friends when we went on our first mission out of the village. It was supposed to be easy, just take the bridge builder back to his village and come back home. Of course it just couldn't be that easy the client had lied there were high ranking ninja after him. Sasuke almost died taking an attack meant for me on that mission…" Naruto trailed off wondering how everything had changed so much since then.

Sasuke and Rai's eyes were wide they loved hearing their father's stories about ninja but this one was even more interesting because their dad was in it. He had been there, fought and survived. Little did they know most of the stories Naruto told them were real and he had seen with his own eyes. Sasuke of course instantly decided he liked 'Sasuke Uchiha' the guy was a cool ninja and had protected his Tou-chan!

Rai's thoughts were similar but not quite as enthusiastic; thinking about how his Tou-chan said Sasuke Uchiha wasn't friendly but mostly liked the guy his Tou-chan was describing anyway, he might not be too friendly himself if his family died. Besides his Tou-chan said the guy had protected him with his life! That was worth big bonus points to Rai.

"Wow." Sasuke and Rai both whispered awed at the same time. Pulling Naruto's attention to them, the teen grinned seeing their expressions. Suddenly Rai snapped out of his awe at his Tou-chan's friend.

"What about me!" Rai beamed. "Who was I named after?" The little blond asked excited. Naruto laughed and Sasuke pouted as his brother pulled the attention from his namesake. He'd like to know more, but he guessed there would be time for that later, and he kind of wanted to know where his brother's name came from too. So he stayed quiet.

"Well actually not everyone is named after someone else." Naruto chuckle as his son pouted thinking there was no cool story to go with his name. "But your name came from my shishou and godfather." Naruto finished after teasing his son by pausing a few seconds. Rai's pout instantly changed into happy anticipation not even realizing his father had been playing with him. Sasuke watched also in anticipation but now wondering if his brother could have gotten the better name.

Naruto stopped tree jumping in the next landing as he told his sons about 'The Great Toad Sage Jiraiya.' Really the teenager would never have told his mentor how awesome he'd thought he was. The guy's head seemed too big anyway; but Naruto had no problem telling a couple of three year olds. After their camp was set up Naruto had finally finished tell the boys about some of his… more 'eventful' times with Jiraiya.

By the end Sasuke was still proud of his name, because while Jiraiya the toad sage seemed cool he wasn't named after a self proclaimed 'super pervert.' He didn't really know what a pervert was but the way his father said it sounded like it was something stupid. Rai was completely happy with his name too, also not knowing what a 'super pervert' was he didn't care. He just knew that the man his name came from was a really cool, strong ninja that taught his father.

They all ate before Naruto made a clone to keep watch and they all settled down to sleep for the night. The nineteen year old ninja always had them all sleep in the same tent to keep his sons safe, but as he saw the boys sleeping that night he knew in a few more years they'd either need their own or he'd need a bigger one. It was just before dawn when Naruto's clone dispelled waking him up and alerting him to someone coming.

Naruto's eyes snapped open, his clones memories of the ninja heading toward him came fast but it was _who_ that ninja was that surprised him. The blond sat up and quickly grabbed his weapons quietly before making a clone to stay with the boys. Naruto went out into the cold morning air to meet someone he hadn't seen in over three years… he just hoped they wouldn't have to fight.

Not only was the ninja coming after him a friend, but was one of the very few of his friends that was probably strong enough to keep him there until back up to arrive. Naruto knew he was close to the Sand village but damn, he didn't think _Gaara_ would come himself! He was the Kazekage, wasn't he not supposed to leave the village, like _ever_? The blond sighed, it just wasn't his day.

Within minutes Naruto spotted Gaara's red hair. The trees had thinned out now that he was closer to the desert and sand was starting to show between the patches of grass. The blond immediately mentally cursed himself for coming back so far and giving Gaara an advantage with the sand. Well at least it was further from the boys…

Gaara stopped maybe 20 feet from the runaway Jinchuuriki all the elemental nations had been looking for. He could hardly believe it when Temari told him what she'd seen earlier and had left quickly after telling Kankurou he was in charge. There were a few of his ninja that Temari ordered to follow him just in case, he'd already told them to stay back, but they were probably only two miles away.

"Naruto." Gaara spoke while noting the two young boys Temari mentioned seeing weren't around. Naruto put a hand behind his head and smiled sheepishly.

"Hey Gaara, I guess you want to know what's going on…" Naruto said still watching closely just in case this was a trap and he'd have to react quickly.

"That would be appreciated." Gaara replied in his usual monotone. Naruto frowned, he knew he brought it up but what was he really supposed to tell Gaara? 'I left to keep the Akatsuki from destroy Konoha and oh yeah, I turned Sasuke into a baby _and_ made myself a clone… Yea that sounds believable.'

"Uhm, well how long I got before the cavalry arrives?" Naruto asked thinking Gaara probably had back up coming. Gaara showed the emotion he usually kept hidden by rolling his eyes.

"No one is coming, and if they were you could sense it. Now where have you been? Why did you leave?" Gaara asked the slightest amount of anger showing through, that Naruto caught. The blond blinked surprised he never knew his redheaded friend to show much emotion. If it was coming through Gaara had either changed or was really mad.

"I left because I needed to Gaara. I was putting my village in danger every moment I stayed; you weren't there to see what happened when Pain came. He destroyed half the village yea, but that wasn't the worst part, when I got back to Konoha there were bodies everywhere Gaara… People I knew, friends, comrades, and they were all dead. They died refusing to give me up…"

Gaara sighed, his anger all but gone. He had been furious because Naruto was the one that showed him to fight for the people he cared for and his village. To think the person that changed his life just gave up… was a horrible feeling. He should have known better though Naruto didn't give up, he never had. Naruto was just trying to protect his precious people another away.

"I heard… it was bad; but everyone is looking for you Naruto. They want you back." Gaara paused to take a breath. "You can't run forever, if you just come back with me I will make sure you will be accepted back. You haven't hurt anyone yet, and the Godaime was fond of you, I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard." Gaara would have groaned if he had less self control, the blond idiot didn't look like he was even considering coming back.

"I… I can't." Naruto almost whispered with his head down and his blond spiky bangs covering his eyes. He felt almost like déjà vu, the words were different, calmer, and they weren't fighting, yet. However he couldn't help but remember trying to talk Sasuke into coming back to the village, just as Gaara was asking him to do.

Gaara frowned and looked straight into his friend's eyes as Naruto locked eyes with him. In those blue depths though Gaara didn't see the dark loneliness he was looking for or hatred, matter of fact he saw less pain in those blue eyes than he'd seen the last time he really looked, when they had fought so long ago. It was like a burden had been lifted from the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and more than that something had helped him heal. Naruto was stronger than ever before, and as Gaara looked into those eyes he knew it. There were only a few things he could think of though, that had that much influence on Naruto Uzumaki.

"What happened to Sasuke, Naruto?" Gaara asked putting the question of 'why he wouldn't return to the village' on hold. If he was right this would answer that question anyway. Naruto stiffened, and his eyes dimmed thinking of what he'd done. Even if it had given him the most precious gifts he'd ever had he couldn't help but to feel guilty about what he'd done that night.

"Uchiha Sasuke is dead." Naruto stated simply, with about as much emotion as Gaara normally showed to everyone else. Gaara frowned remembering what his sister had run into his office earlier saying.

"Really? Temari thought she saw a boy who looked a lot like him with you." Gaara questioned carefully he didn't really think Naruto was one to lie but he didn't know how far Naruto would go for the Uchiha. Gaara watched for a reaction but Naruto didn't look surprised or like he'd been caught in a lie, just… sad.

"That…isn't Uchiha Sasuke. Not really." Naruto sighed sadly. Thinking about the old Sasuke always depressed him. "It's… complicated." Naruto shifted his feet trying to think how he could say it, or if he _should_ say anything more. Gaara's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, the way Naruto was referring to the Uchiha was weird. Like he was… _qualifying_ who he was talking about?

"Naruto," Gaara sighed finally giving up trying to guess. "just tell me what's going on." Really with Naruto the redhead knew it could be anything. Naruto grimaced then sighed too, putting aside his internal debate. He half turn back toward the way he came.

"Follow me." Naruto said simply. Gaara knowing Naruto was never one for luring a friend into a trap followed. They walk side by side as Naruto went into explaining everything.

Konoha 

Shikamaru read the letter he'd just received, again. Then folded up the letter and put on his sandals before going out the door. Not far from his home he spotted his best friend Chouji. The happily chubby ninja seemed to notice something was up.

"Hey Shikamaru, something wrong?" Chouji asked concerned. Shikamaru's eyes went to his friend briefly but he didn't stop in his steps as he answered.

"There's new information on Naruto. Can you get the others and meet me at the Hokage tower?" Shikamaru said ignoring Chouji's shocked stumble. Chouji quickly brought in his surprise though and nodded before leaping off to get the other rookie nine and their sensei.

It was five minutes later when Shikamaru went into the Hokage's office with Sakura, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Kurenai-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, Ino, Sai and Chouji right behind him. Chouji said Team Gai was out on a mission, but Shikamaru was sure they'd know soon after they got back.

Tsunade watched as they all came in her worry growing with every new person. Shikamaru seemed to be the one everyone was looking to so she focused on him.

"What's going on?" She asked the Nara bluntly. Shikamaru didn't bother explaining he just handed his letter to the Godaime. Tsunade looked at the paper with a raised eyebrow before taking it. After every line she read her eyes got a little wider. She didn't say anything after she finished, and less than a minute went by before the silence was too much for Kiba.

"Well? What's it say?" Kiba asked impatiently, momentarily forgetting who he was talking to. If Tsunade noticed she didn't say anything she just offered the letter out for everyone else to see. Sakura quickly took it and started reading with just about everyone reading over her shoulder.

"It's from Temari." Sakura stated so everyone knew before going quiet as she got to what Temari had written.

"Kakashi," Tsunade broke everyone from their thoughts after they'd clearly all read the letter. "you are to lead everyone here to the Sand Village, look for Uzumaki Naruto and bring him back."

Kakashi nodded to the Hokage before turning to the group of nine ninja. "Get your things; we meet at the west gate in an hour." He spoke simply and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. All of the large group filed out quickly to prepare.

Naruto and Gaara

"I couldn't give up on Sasuke, Gaara but I knew he wasn't just going to magically come back. So I thought about it for a long time and I realized even if I got Sasuke to come back that nothing would ever be okay for him. Most the Kage's wanted him dead, or at least imprisoned. And even if I somehow got him his freedom back no one would ever look at him the same…" Naruto trailed off for a moment but Gaara didn't interrupt as they continued walking.

"After I realized that I knew that if I was going to help Sasuke I would have to give him a whole new life… And that's exactly what I did." The blond had been looking down but raised his head with those last words. When Gaara heard the way the boy beside him said he gave Sasuke 'whole new life' he almost shivered. Naruto craned his head to the side to look at the redhead as he continued.

"I searched for months to find what I needed, though with my clones it felt like years. Eventually I took pieces of other jutsu and worked through them, twisting them and adding a few of my own ideas to make what I wanted. It still wasn't quite right though, I needed to anchor it better and I didn't want to risk using my crappy control to make it work. That's when I came up with the idea to use a seal…" Naruto turned back to look where he was walking and slowed they were almost to the clearing.

"The seal worked, but a little too well. I had succeeded in giving Sasuke a new life, mostly. His memories were erased and he was turned back into a baby, but the jutsu kind of… imploded. So he still looks exactly as he did when he was little." Naruto pause before continuing in a less somber tone.

"Turns out I put way too much into the seal jutsu and got a… weird result." Naruto chuckled lightly rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Gaara relaxed slightly at the gesture and took an educated guess of what the conclusion was.

"The other boy Temari saw? She said he looked like you." Gaara turned his head slightly to see the teenage sage. Naruto nodded a small smirk on his face. He always felt proud when someone said his son looked like him.

"The seal I used was a blood seal. I used my own blood for it, and the boy Temari saw is almost a clone of me." Naruto said thinking about each word he was never good at the technical stuff but he'd learned this front and back because it was important information about his sons.

"Almost?" Gaara questioned and Naruto nodded.

"Yea, he actually has a small amount of Sasuke's genetics in him, and Sasuke has a small amount of my genetics in _him_…" Naruto trailed off. "But Gaara, they are my sons. Both of them." Gaara felt a shiver go up his spine at the blond's possessive tone. He knew then that not only was Naruto serious, but he would kill for those boys. They entered the clearing in silence where Naruto's tent was set up and his sons were still sound asleep inside. Half way to the tent Naruto stopped and turned back to Gaara.

"They're innocent Gaara. They don't remember anything about Sasuke or my life."

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**AND CUT!**

**narutofan : thanks! but Naruto won't notice any differences for a few more chapters ;)**

**I'm in classes but I will update asala thanks you for the reviews though XD**

** hedwigfan: your welcome! :)**

**suzanne : thanks! Its always good to hear that my stories are appreciated :D **

**(Shishou: master/teacher)**


	8. Gaara's Decision

**Okay guys this one isn't quite as long but I fit the way I wanted to :P**

**Hope you like it!  
**

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**Chapter 8: Gaara's Decision **

It was a little past sun rise when Sasuke started waking up to the voices he was hearing outside. Not wanting to get up just yet Sasuke listened to what the voices were saying and recognized one as his father's voice.

'_They're innocent Gaara. They don't remember anything about Sasuke or my old life.' _Was the first thing he heard his father say. Instantly giving him many questions; who was innocent, who doesn't remember, and why? He stayed curled up next to his brother in their sleeping bag, normally he wouldn't care what his father was talking about to someone else but they had said his name, so he listened carefully.

'_Maybe Naruto, but I'd like to see for myself._' Sasuke heard the other person that sounded like a guy, reply to his Tou-chan by name. Did that mean they knew each other? His Tou-chan called the other guy by name too, it was Gaara… Sasuke was sure he'd heard that name before but he could remember where.

'_They'll be up soon._' Sasuke heard his Tou-chan sigh. '_But Gaara, __**don't**__ hurt them._' Sasuke felt afraid when he heard that, why would this guy want to hurt him or his brother? If they were who they'd been talking about before, what did they not remember, and what did his Tou-chan think they were 'innocent' of?

Sasuke was quiet awake now but made no move to go out or wake his brother, he just stayed as quiet as possible hoping they'd think he'd hadn't heard anything. Naruto and Gaara weren't talking after that as Naruto made a fire to cook some breakfast up. About ten minutes later Rai woke up slowly, snuggling sleepily into his brother's chest.

The little raven haired boy reactively wrapped his arm around his little brother. They were twins, but their Tou-chan had told them when they'd asked that Sasuke was a few seconds older, so he was the big brother. Sasuke rubbed his small face gently into the other boy's soft hair and held onto him. He was afraid to go outside… he knew Tou-chan would protect them but… what if something went wrong.

Sasuke grimaced, he was the older brother so would have to protect Rai. He didn't regret it; he just was now more scared that he would fail his only brother. That couldn't happen, he couldn't even think it, Rai was his twin. They didn't look alike and he always had to share his toys… but Rai was his best friend. At that moment Sasuke was pulled out of his thoughts by Rai moving back as he woke up.

Rai sat up rubbing his eyes and looked around sleepily before he noticed something or someone missing. "Where's Tou-chan?" he mumbled quietly. Just before he heard a pot clang and figured it out.

"Out d'ere." Sasuke answered anyway, slurring his speech babyishly. Rai got up and Sasuke followed but got in front of his brother and grabbed his hand as they walked out of the tent. Rai thought it was weird, that Sasuke would want to go first enough to do that but didn't think much about it with his sleepy mind. The little blond rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he stepped outside the tent and into the sun light.

As soon as he did though he was surprised to see a guy around his dad's age with bright red hair sitting next to his father. Rai stopped to stare at the red head and Sasuke stopped with him, both were watching him carefully. The little blond was confused while the raven was cautious and suspicious of the new comer. Gaara stared back at both of them looking impassive as he mentally went over everything about them, from the way they looked to their body language and how they acted with each other.

"Good morning Rai-chan, good morning Sasuke!" Naruto said cheerfully trying to lighten the mood. Both boys turn to their father and went to him while moving carefully around Gaara. Rai held onto Sasuke's blue t-shirt and Sasuke kept shifting nervously and sat slightly behind his Tou-chan when they got to him.

"Mornin' Tou-chan." Sasuke and Rai said quietly in perfect unity. Gaara looked at Naruto clearly wondering if he'd just heard right and the three year olds just spoke together at the same time. Naruto only smirked at him.

"Breakfast will be done soon guys, but first I'll introduce you to my friend. Sasuke, Rai-chan this is Gaara. Gaara, these are my sons Jiraiya-chan and Sasuke." Naruto said happily as he gestured toward each person and said Rai's whole first name before stirring their breakfast over the campfire. Gaara took notice that Naruto had once again left the 'chan' off Sasuke's name and made a mental note to ask about it later.

"Good Morning." Gaara said in his normal flat tone as he nodded to the boys. Sasuke was still wary of the red head now named Gaara but replied back knowing it'd be rude not to.

"Mornin'." The little raven muttered shyly. Rai who was still partly hidden behind Sasuke took that as his cue.

"Mornin'." The small blond said quickly but still quietly. Gaara watched every move and listened to three year olds tones to see if he could pick up anything, but as Naruto said they seemed perfectly innocent and a bit scared of him. Not that it was anything new to him, but Sasuke seemed suspicious of him too, which was weird.

With Kakashi Retrieval Team

"Alright everyone," Kakashi called as he stopped and landed on the ground from the branch he'd been on. "We will eat and rest here for a little while before heading back out." He ordered. Quite a few of the younger ninja wanted to protest but their hunger and tired muscles from traveling soon won out. After everyone had set up camp and gotten some food in them they sent two of them on watch on either side of the clearing while the others rested.

Sakura lay on her back with her eyes towards the stars but wasn't really seeing them; her mind was far off elsewhere. Questions went through her mind constantly. _What had happened at the valley three years ago? Why hadn't Naruto come back if he was alive? Where was Sasuke? How did all this happen? _

_Ever since Sasuke had run away all she had wanted was her old team back together. Just Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei and her, like they had been in the beginning. That's why after Sasuke left she had spent so much energy trying to bring him back, trying to save him… and now Naruto leaves. What the hell was he thinking! The blond-baka knew how much it hurt everyone when Sasuke left, and then he just, he just… _Sakura sighed dejectedly. Hopefully she'd know soon… but if he didn't have a good answer, a REALLY good one, she was going to kill him.

A few feet away Kakashi was having similar thoughts, except at the moment he was blaming himself. _He'd had one Genin team, a team of three students and only one of them was still with Konoha. Out of the other two, one had defected and wouldn't hesitate to kill one of his teammates the last time he saw the boy and the other had… left. _Kakashi glanced towards his only student he could see at the moment. _Well at least Naruto hasn't turned on his teammates… yet. He just kind of disappeared. _

_A few years ago he would have laughed at anyone that even implied Naruto would willingly hurt his comrades in anyway, but before he didn't really think Sasuke would either. _The silver haired Jounin rubbed his head tiredly,_ he was getting too old for this… and he was never taking on another Genin team again. He didn't care what the Hokage did to him. _

A Few Hours Later with Naruto, Gaara, and the Boys

Sasuke and Rai had slowly gotten more comfortable in Gaara's presence though Sasuke was still putting himself between his little brother and the red head. Gaara had continued observing the two boys and Naruto, the only thing he found though was either Sasuke was really good at acting like a child, or Naruto really had turning him into one.

The young Kazekage really doubted the first; even if he did think the Uchiha could act that well though he knew there was no way he could of rid his eyes of the hatred Gaara had seen in him at the kage meeting. Apparently like many impossible things only Naruto could pull that off. The other boy though surprised him, not that he showed it, but despite being almost a complete clone of Naruto like he was told the boy was completely different.

Sure he looked almost identical to the older blond but he acted… different. Of course Gaara hadn't known Naruto at that age but he highly doubted Naruto would hide behind anyone. The boy he'd met in the Chuunin exams had been brash, loud, and boastful. Not that he'd been much better at the time but the little blond Jiraiya was shy, clingy, and maybe not quiet but definitely not loud.

"Hey, um Gaara-san, whats that kanji on your head mean?" Rai asked bluntly. If Gaara was more expressive he would have given the kid a look that said 'don't ask strangers personal questions'. Maybe the kid was more like Naruto than he seemed after all. Sasuke watched Gaara carefully worried what he might do, and wishing his brother wouldn't actively try to provoke the scary guy… though he'd wanted to know too. Neither of them could read yet.

Unnoticed by Sasuke, Naruto was listing and watching too, while hoping that Gaara didn't take offence. He wondered about the tattoo when he'd first seen it too but after hearing that Gaara was like him, and being told about some of the thing the red haired boy went through he didn't think it was a happy memory so he didn't pry.

"It means love." Gaara answered the question without any details while managing to not look embarrassed about having 'love' literally tattooed to his forehead. Luckily for him Rai and Sasuke were too young to think about how 'cute' that would seem to girls. Rai continued to look right at Gaara with curious eyes and instantly had another question.

"Why's it on your forehead?" The little blond asked curiously as Naruto smirked. The blond teen didn't know if he should save his son, save his friend, or watch the show. When he saw Gaara trying to stare down a three year old who didn't even know what the red head Kazekage was trying to do… well, it was an easy choice.

Sasuke had relaxed somewhat listening and was now also looking curiously at Gaara for an explanation. Gaara looked over to Naruto for help only for his eye to twitch when he saw the teenage blond sitting eating ramen and fully facing him like he was watching some sort of show. Naruto caught him looking and grinned through the noodles hanging out of his mouth… Gaara twitched again.

"Well?" Sasuke pressed finally talking to the young Kazekage willingly instead only when spoken to. Gaara sighed knowing he wasn't going to be left in peace until he said something.

"I put it there so I'd never forget what it means." Gaara answered vaguely. He really didn't want to go into the whole story he might have told Naruto if they were alone but he wasn't about to tell two toddlers he'd just met about the first time his own father tried to have him assassinated.

"Oh." Rai said completely uninterested now. Sasuke made a confused face, he felt like something was missing. As soon as he thought it he just as easily forgot about it. It didn't seem that interesting anymore anyway. Both boys turned away giving Gaara a reprieve as they walked toward the tent and started taking it down without a word.

"Boys, you two stay right here. Me and Gaara are gonna go talk for a minute, just pack up your stuff." Naruto ordered with a smile. Neither boy said anything but both watched curiously and a little worried about being left alone, even for a moment. When Naruto and Gaara were out of site Sasuke nudged Rai getting the little blond's attention.

"Be careful of dat guy I heard Daddy tellin' him not to hurt us." Sasuke said easily slipping in and out of his babyish slur. Rai however understood him perfectly, they both always knew what the other was talking about no matter how much they slurred their words. The slightly younger boy frowned.

"Why he'd wanna do dat? We didn' do nothin'" Rai questioned now that it was just him and Sasuke he could talk anyway he wanted, cause Sasuke would understand. They both were already gathering their stuff up and packing the tent as they talked.

"I don'no. I jus heard them when I woke up." Sasuke answered leavening out his (T 's). They were both silent as they finished packing. Quickly they forgot all their worries with the familiar motions of packing and their childish attention spans.

Naruto and Gaara stopped about twenty yards from the boys and camp to talk.

"So? What are you gonna do?" Naruto asked trying to not worry about the answer. If Gaara decided to stop him, it would get ugly. He was even more concerned about what Gaara thought about Sasuke and Rai though. If the Kazekage deemed them a threat than he could try and have them killed and while Naruto didn't like the idea of fighting his friends… he would stop anyone who tried to harm his sons. Of course the other issue was Sasuke and whether or not Gaara would try and punish him for… another life, for lack of a better term.

"I will not harm you or your sons, Naruto." Gaara said easily defusing the tension Naruto had been feeling. Not just because of his statement either but because Gaara had said the boys were _his_ sons. Gaara had given Naruto exactly what he needed; he had acknowledged that Rai _and_ Sasuke were his sons. "You may leave if you wish, I won't stop you. You should know though that by now a message has most likely reached your home village about you." Gaara explained. He hadn't taken the time to send one himself but he was sure someone had.

"Then I should probably get out of here before they come…" Naruto frowned sadly. He missed his friends, his sensei and… everyone. Plus he was so proud of his sons he wanted to show them off, but he knew he couldn't, they wouldn't be safe. He would go back one day, when the boys were older and could take care of themselves better. Sensing his friends nostalgic thoughts, which wasn't hard, Gaara tried think of how to help.

"You don't have to go you know. I could protect them." Gaara intoned knowing just how hard that could be if Konoha knew of what blood ran through the still very young twins. Naruto's eyes snapped to him at the gesture. The blond smiled gratefully, but it didn't touch his eyes which told Gaara his friend knew just how hard that could be and wasn't going to let him do it.

"Thank you. But I should go." Naruto said but made no move to leave just yet.

"They are… concerned about you Naruto. I have little doubt that your friends are coming to find you even as we speak. Do you not want me to tell them?" Gaara asked resigned to letting Naruto go without being able to help, though he was a bit relieved he wouldn't be risking war with Konoha but still concerned about his first friend and that friend's family.

Naruto didn't speak for awhile; he never meant to hurt anyone he had just wanted everyone to be safe and alive, and to keep his promise to Sasuke. If his friends were still like they were before they would be hard to lose especially with two growing toddler on his back… His blond spikes covered his eyes as storm clouds gathered above them, it would rain soon. Finally Naruto made a decision.

"Gaara would you do me a favor?" Naruto asked a small fox like grin spreading on his face. Gaara's eye quirked but nodded hesitantly. Whatever it was he doubted Naruto would put him or his village at risk; after all he had just turned down sanctuary to not let _him_ put the Sand village at risk.

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**AND CUT! _"I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time." Charles M. Schulz _**

**Yes I just HAD to stop it there (insert evil laughter) :]**

**Anyway to my annoyimous reviewers:**

**narutofan: heh yea really, but don't worry Naruto will pull through again, he always does ;)**

**Precious: thanks so much! It always makes me feel good (& want to write more ;P ) to know ppl like my stories.**

**suzanne: thanks for the input! I'm always glad to know what ppl think (if its nice) XD**

**a procrastinating illustrator A.K.A BTL : I'm glad you like it! :D but no I'm not getting a beta XP Yes I know there are mistakes but really everybody makes them (and I've seen much worse) Getting a beta though would make me have to wait to post AND show them my work making it easy to steal... while I'm not too concerned about that (FANfic) I still rather do it myself. And yes sometime I do know the words are different, just didn't catch it**

**NOW thank you all for your reviews, no I mean the next one... down THERE, the button that says REVIEW ...YEAH thats it just a lil more!  
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	9. Come Back

**Wow I think its been longer than usual... SORRY! I know this excuse is used a lot but I am in school! **

**I have had little to no time to write anything but art papers and speeches T_T but didn't forget about this story (its my favorite)**

**I DO have a spin off surprise for you guys too, (its already 10,000 words) don't know how it got that high it was supposed to be a short story...**

**Anyway hope you like the new chapter for now :D**

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**Chapter 9**: **Come Back**

"No." Gaara stated bluntly again.

"_Please._" Naruto whined for what seemed like the thousandth time.

Naruto stood in the Kazekage's office talking with Gaara while Sasuke and Rai sat in one of the office chairs together. Sasuke looked completely bored out of his mind but Rai was past that he was now looking for something interesting to get into. They didn't really hear the grownups conversation and honestly weren't trying after they'd been basically smuggled into the village under cloaks.

"I just need you to take care of them for like a week. I promise I'll be back as soon as I can." Naruto pleaded for the millionth time. Really, Gaara acted like he was asking him to give up his arm or something. Actually Naruto was pretty sure Gaara _would_ have given him his arm by now.

"One week? You'll be back? And you _will_ own me." Gaara finally relented a bit. Naruto perked up and instantly grabbed the opportunity.

"Great!" Naruto agreed before turning to the little blond and raven, kneeling in front of them just as Rai was about to slip out of the chair to 'look' at something that caught his eye. "You two be good for your Uncle Gaara and I'll be back in a week, okay?" Naruto hugged them both not waiting for an answer to his rhetorical question.

Quickly getting up and turning around Naruto was out the door before either boy could protest, shouting a "Thanks Gaara!" over his shoulder so Gaara didn't have the time to really take in what he'd just gotten himself into. Sasuke and Rai blinked at the door where their father had just left through then turned to each other and blinked again as they realized they'd just been left behind with 'Uncle Gaara'. Then all Hell broke loose.

"DADDY!" Rai and Sasuke both shouted simultaneously as they scrambled off their chair and towards the door to catch Naruto before he got too far. They didn't get passed the doorway before they were grabbed by sand, surprisingly or not the three year olds didn't question it. They struggled to get down screaming for their father for less than a minute before they broke down in tears… Gaara could have killed Naruto at that moment.

Naruto ran swiftly out of Suna, he really didn't want to hear his sons cry and he needed to hurry, before someone from Konoha could get here first. He knew for sure they were coming after he and Gaara talked to Temari. Thankfully Temari hadn't mentioned the boys in her letter to Shikamaru and the Hokage because she sent it so fast and wasn't sure if they were shadow clones or not.

However if his old comrades got there they'd see his sons for themselves and there would be no hiding them then. So he ran out to meet them first, hopefully they weren't too mad at him and he'd be able to get to Tsunade baa-chan without too much hassle. If not Gaara was going to kill him; after all the commute to Suna was normally three days so he was already pushing it.

Stopping for a second he switched into sage mode and took off much faster than before. He could already sense them when he realized who he was sensing though he flinched, sincerely wishing he could just hightail it back… it was going to be a long trip.

A few hours later Hinata stiffened and motioned for everyone to stop. "He's coming." She said just loud enough for everyone to hear, her Byakugan active. Realizing they may not have caught on she corrected herself. "Naruto is coming, quickly." Everyone tensed taking defensive stances just in case, while they all wonder why he was coming to them after hiding so long.

"Alright everyone stay on guard, but don't attack unless I give the signal!" Kakashi called getting a few nods and quiet 'Hai'. No sooner than he finished speaking Naruto stopped in the center of all of them kicking up a lot of dust as he stopped so swiftly. The dust cleared quickly though and everyone was able to finally see Naruto standing there.

Naruto looked older than when the rookies and their sensei had seen him last but not by much. He stood tall but not too tall maybe just under six feet with his blond spikes as untamed as ever. A little less orange on his jacket but still enough to stand out; black pants with an orange strip on each side and black ninja sandals made him seem more mature, but it was his red sage cloak that completed his look.

When nobody said anything Naruto of course took it upon himself to break the ice. "Hi guys." The blond said bluntly with a happy grin. Everybody there felt to some degree relieved that Naruto seemed to have at least not changed on the inside in the slightest. Since the ice had been so kindly broken by Naruto, and Kakashi was supposed to be in charge he decided it was time to get to the point… preferably before Sakura did something rash.

"Hello Naruto," Kakashi greeted. "So nice of you to meet us part way. I don't suppose you'd mind coming back with us to the village?" Kakashi asked giving his infamous eye smile. It was always best to ask nicely first after all. Naruto smiled at him widely, he really had missed everyone greatly, but his own self preservation kept him from looking in Sakura's direction. The blond titled his head like he was thinking about it.

"Okay!" Naruto chirped. All the rookies and even their sensei almost fell over sweat dropping. Sai just kept up his weird smile but even he could tell that had been an odd response. Sakura trembled in anger, _How dare he just walk right up after three years like nothing's happened!_ She thought not daring to look at her once teammate in case she'd break rank and try to strangle him.

Hinata kept her eyes down, not saying anything as her team and sensei looked on either confused or in Shino's case impassive. Ino stood by Sakura in case her friend broke down or needed her for anything; she knew it couldn't be easy on the pink haired girl. Shikamaru stood slightly in front of a confused Chouji, watching Naruto with the same face he used when he couldn't quite figure something out. Shikamaru finally sighed, breaking eye contact and muttering what Chouji was pretty sure sounded like 'troublesome'.

"Great!" Kakashi replied happily. "And will you tell us why you left in the first place, Naruto?" Kakashi asked curiously. Naruto grinned widely showing his teeth and his eyes closing, in the way they all remembered.

"Nope!" Naruto chirped again before jumping on the trees passed them and toward Konoha. "Now come on! Or I'm gonna beat you back!" Naruto said trying to release the tension still in the air and get moving. That was too much for Sakura though.

The pink headed kunoichi's eyes shot open from where she'd clenched them shut and darted forward before anyone could stop her. Even Ino who was right next to Sakura for just that reason was taken by surprise and couldn't grab the other girl. Kakashi was going to stop her and probably could have but he had always let his students' sort things out for themselves, which made him hesitate. By time he could think maybe that hadn't worked very well so far it was too late to stop the kunoichi.

Naruto had turned around on instinct or reflex in time to see a sight he hadn't for years. Sakura's fist headed for his face. His body started to move to avoid the hit but on a split second decision he made himself stay where he was. '_I deserve this.'_ Naruto thought just before pain exploded in his head. He felt himself fly backward before his back collide with a tree. The blond was sure that the black spots and _pretty_ colors meant he had a concussion. He was just grateful she hadn't seen fit to send him _through_ the tree… yet.

"How could you do this **you** **stupid bastard**!" Sakura screamed after walking over to where she'd hit Naruto and holding him up by his collar, very close to strangling the nineteen year old sage. None of the other rookies dared to interfere. This was a teammate dispute, it wasn't their place. Kurenai however stepped forward intending to help because Hinata was looking more concerned by the second but Kakashi raised his hand signaling her to stop. She stayed where she was though reluctantly.

"How could you! **WHY!**" Sakura yelled again shaking her blond teammate for an answer as she came close to tears. Naruto felt part of his heart break, he never thought she or really anyone would really miss him, not enough to be angry anyway. No one had ever seemed to before. She was probably just mad he went after Sasuke without her. The worst part was he couldn't even say he was sorry though, because if he hadn't done what he did he wouldn't have two perfect sons'.

"I had to." Naruto spoke so quietly no one but Sakura heard him, though she barely did. Naruto kept his eyes down to the side guiltily with his golden spiky bangs covering his them. His answer didn't really help Sakura's emotions in the least but she had to know.

"Why? Why didn't you say something? Why didn't you tell me?" Sakura said now sounding more hurt than angry. She was now just holding Naruto lightly to the tree instead of almost strangling him but Naruto still made no move to get away. The blond was speechless at her hurt tone, he hadn't heard her like that since she asked him to bring Sasuke back and it just made him feel ten times scummier. He knew his next answer wouldn't go over well.

"You wouldn't have let me go without you." Naruto said softly. Sakura stilled, she wanted to lash out, she wanted to scream.

"You're damn right I wouldn't idiot. I would have gone with you to get Sasuke back, to make sure you came back." The pink haired medic said angrily but serious. Naruto finally looked at her surprised she'd come not just for Sasuke but for him too. He looked down again before replying.

"I knew you'd want to come… but I had a plan. And I couldn't- if I told you, you would have insisted on going and I didn't want you to have to give up everything. You had a family, friends, a life…" Naruto trailed off. Really he didn't think he had much when he left and what he did, he was putting at risk with Akatsuki. Sakura lowered her own head and pulled her hand back completely freeing Naruto from her but he still didn't move.

"So did you. And it wasn't your place to make that choice for me." Naruto didn't say anything. Yes, he'd had what he sort of considered a family in Team 7, and he had friends in his comrades from the other rookie teams but didn't she see he was putting them in danger? He decided it wasn't the moment to make that point and kept quiet. After a few uncomfortable moments passed with no one daring to speak Sakura broke the silence.

"What happened? You said you had a plan, for Sasuke, what happened?" Sakura asked curious but apprehensive. Naruto didn't look up but even from where Kakashi was the ninja could see the blond tense. He hadn't thought that far ahead. He could tell them the truth like he did with Gaara, but if they knew it wouldn't be a secret anymore and soon everyone would know; his sons' would be in danger.

If he couldn't tell them the truth though, what could he tell them? Naruto knew what he needed to do, what he needed to tell them… but part of him just felt like it was wrong somehow, probably because it was misleading. Anything more though and it would lead straight back to his son, thinking of the little raven haired boy looking up at him with big innocent onyx eyes, Naruto spoke the words he knew would hurt the girl in front of him more than anything he'd said before.

"Sasuke… Uchiha is dead." Naruto had hesitated but it only sounded like regret, thankfully. Silence, total silence was what ruled everyone after that admission. Sakura's eyes were wide, her face stricken. After all this time and everything Sasuke had done, part of her still couldn't help but love him. She knew it was stupid and wrong but it never changed the way she felt.

Kakashi bowed his head, he'd lost another comrade; he knew Sasuke had been 'lost' before now. It just seemed more official when he heard the words. Kurenai bowed her own head in respect while the old rookie 9 now official not nine anymore made various shocked or remorseful expressions. They hadn't known Sasuke as well as Naruto or Sakura but he has still been one of them, and the most skilled of them. To think of someone they had know as children was dead was just… disturbing.

Sakura turned slowly away from Naruto in shock but it didn't stop him from seeing the first tear slide silently down her cheek. Naruto didn't look at anyone but figured one of them would comfort Sakura; he knew she didn't want him to right now. So he took off at a light pace toward the Leaf Village, more morbid than before.

The others were right behind him. Naruto looked back briefly before speeding up a little to see Ino had been the one to stop and help Sakura along. Feeling a bit better that she was in good hands he picked up his pace. Kakashi of course was keeping a close eye on Naruto and felt a little more content knowing the boy still cared about his last teammate… and come to think of it Naruto didn't say _he_ killed Sasuke, just that Sasuke was dead.

In Konoha Tsunade was trying to keeping focused on her paperwork, it had only been four days since she sent Kakashi and the teams out to look for the brat. They wouldn't be back for at least another three or four, possibly more if they ran into trouble. Tsunade sighed re-reading for the third time a document for some business that wanted to start selling alcohol.

She rolled her eyes annoyed as she stamped and signed it. Really she didn't know why they needed _her_ approval for something like that. It should go to some desk lackey or something… maybe she'd look into that later. She berated herself as she looked at the clock again. They just weren't going to be back that-

"BAA-CHAN! I'M HERE!" Naruto yelled busting into her office like he always used to. Every ninja she sent after him on his heels. The blond didn't get far before he had to duck the book she'd thrown at his head. She'd told him a thousand times not to call her that.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT BRAT!" '_A thousand and one._' Tsunade thought as she yelled back, though she was a bit surprised her apprentice hadn't said something about it too. She knew why when she caught sight of said pink haired girl looking depressed in the back of the group by Ino.

"Mission accomplished. Uzumaki, Naruto found and return to Konoha." Kakashi stated stepping up. Tsunade nodded.

"Well done. Hand in a mission report tomorrow morning; dismissed." Tsunade said ordering the ninja from the room. Naruto didn't move he knew the order wasn't meant for him. Kakashi's one visible eye narrowed but he gave a slight nod and was gone in a poof of smoke as everyone else filed out in their own way, some grumbling, though Sakura was oddly quiet.

"Alright explain, now." Tsunade ordered not wasting a second. The only way everyone would have come back so fast without a scratch, so soon, and with Naruto not tied up was if Naruto didn't put up a fight and had actually been coming towards the village from the direction they were going, from Suna.

Naruto frowned in thought, he knew he had to tell her the truth, it was the only way she'd stop sending ninja after him, which was why he had come. But where did he start?

"I went after Sasuke." Naruto stated. Tsunade frowned at him

"I know that, we all do. You said so in your letter. What was your plan and why **the Hell** did you go off on your own?" Tsunade almost growled at him. Naruto's eyes went to the floor, it was now or never. While he preferred the last option, he knew what he had to do. He wouldn't be able to hide forever.

"I wanted to save Sasuke, and I wanted to keep the village safe… so I started making a plan after Pain attacked. To keep the village safe I knew I'd have to leave," Tsunade was tempted to stop him there but she had waited to hear this for a long time, she'd let him finish. "but that wouldn't do anything for Sasuke." Naruto paused briefly.

"I thought of why Sasuke had left, and how I could change that. I thought about every possible way from time travel to just plain beating the shit out of him." Naruto snorted but didn't look at her lost in his memories. "Finally I figured out what I wanted to do. I wanted to basically give him a second chance, a new life. Without the burdens of the past… I know now that was wrong…" Naruto trailed off. Tsunade couldn't help but feel some pity for the teen, how he said that… worried her.

"What did you do Naruto?" the blond Hokage asked kinder than she'd been talking to him before. Naruto looked up at her his blue eyes looking younger and yet older at the same time than she ever remembered as he was startled out of his thoughts.

"I… I made a jutsu; that took more chakra and control than anything I'd done before. I spammed my clones for months working on it. Made sure it would do what I wanted, but I still wouldn't have the control to pull it off anytime soon, so I created a blood seal to guide my chakra." Naruto took a breath turning away from her; he didn't want to see her disappointment or anger.

"After I finished the jutsu and after Sakura, Kakashi-sensei and I had met with Madara and Sasuke, I was ready. I knew where Sasuke would be that day, waiting for me at the valley to settle who was strongest once and for all. But to activate my jutsu on Sasuke he'd have to be restrained, in other words I'd have to beat him first." Naruto frowned in thought but looked back up at the older woman.

"I finally managed to beat him with… a little luck…" He already had enough to explain, anything to do with Itachi could wait. "Once the jutsu was prepared Sasuke woke up but he didn't have enough time to figure a way out before I started the** Shin Seikatsu Jutsu (New Life Jutsu)." **Tsunade raised an eyebrow at the name and got an uncomfortable sinking feeling.

"It was working fine but… something happened. I didn't know at the time but I had, kind of, made the jutsu unbalanced after putting so much into it without taking as much out… Before I could finish, it started sucking my chakra out fast. It stopped just as I was blacking out and when I woke up…"

Far away two three year old boys sneezed at the same time. As they sat on one bed despite the fact there was a bed for each of them, the little blond boy spoke. "Hey Sasuke do ya think someone's talkin' 'bout us?Like how daddy says when he sneeze?" Rai asked curiously. Sasuke shrugged lying back on the bed horizontally.

"I don'no, maybe." Sasuke answered not really thinking about it.

"Humm," Rai hummed. "I wonder who'd be thinking 'bout us." Rai laid back beside his raven haired brother staring at the ceiling. Sasuke didn't say anything, it wasn't really something he was asked and he wasn't really listening anyway.

Down the hall at his dining room table Gaara sighed, sipping a mug of hot chocolate. He had finally gotten those, those… _kids_ to go to bed and stop screaming. Having no other choice they accepted their dad would be back soon. Gaara would find out in the mourning what a child's sense of time was. Till then he would obliviously finish his remaining paperwork for the night… and maybe think of how he'd make Naruto pay for this.

Elsewhere Zetsu's eyes snapped open. His open senses had finally picked up a trace of the last Jinchuuriki after three years. They had taken the eight tails almost a year ago in hopes it would lure the nine tails out, but all had been quiet… till now. Focusing to narrow down where the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki's energy was coming from Zetsu frowned; the boy was back in Konoha.

Sinking slowing into the ground Zetsu white and black together followed the signal before he would lose it. After three years he did not want to test his master's patience further by losing the only lead he had found since the boy had going missing.

In Suna two three year old boys had been asleep from hours but the young raven haired boy, Sasuke turned in his sleep and his little eyebrows furrowed slightly as he dreamed.

_Sasuke was standing but he wasn't on land… beneath him was a lake of clean water. He didn't know how he was doing that but before he could question it he spotted another boy a few yards away from him also standing on the water like it was natural. The boy Sasuke saw looked like his brother but something just felt like it wasn't Rai. _

_What really was confusing the raven though was that Rai or the boy who looked liked him was older. The blond boy Sasuke could tell was still a kid but much older than him and Rai. That was when Sasuke realized he looked older too. The raven tried to gasp in surprise and realized he couldn't, and he couldn't talk or move at all. The only thing he could do was watch._

"_It's not the future I dream of anymore… only the past… that's where my dream lies." Sasuke heard the words come out of his mouth but they weren't his. He hadn't tried to say anything and if he had it wouldn't have been that. As he watched the blond boy argue and even physically fight with the boy whose eyes he was seeing through the young raven became more afraid and confused. He couldn't even make out most of what they were saying… but the blond boy who looked so much like his brother looked angry and… hurt._

"_I won't let Orochimaru have you! I will stop you even if I have to break every bone in your body!" Sasuke heard the blond boy say and his fear grew. He was only three, and he was so scared… but he wasn't even sure why. It just felt wrong. Suddenly the scene changed._

"_Are you okay... scaredy-cat?" Sasuke heard the same blond boy at about the same age as he was in the last scene. Sasuke felt himself become a little annoyed at being a scaredy-cat but he nor his body made any move to defend himself. Because behind the blond boy was a huge snake head that he seemed to have stopped all by himself, the boy had saved him._

_Sasuke stared wide eyed at the boy who looked so much like his sweet twin brother but the boy's eyes were red, which Sasuke was sure they hadn't been before, and the boy looked almost feral, like a wild animal. It was the blood dripping down the blond's face that was really making the little raven worry though. Put everything together and the three year old couldn't take it, he screamed as loud and as hard as he could._

_No sound came out, but that didn't stop him Sasuke kept screaming and started crying, willing himself to wake up. Because this had to be just a horrible dream._

Meanwhile Rai was having a similar dream. The young blond boy made no outward movement but even in his dreams he could feel his fear rising.

_Rai felt himself standing on water and thought it was really cool but eventually pulled his attention from the water to see a raven haired boy staring at him. Rai immediately recognized him as Sasuke but he, the boy in front of him just seemed different… The raven haired boy was older for sure but he just looked like his brother would in a few years. What made Rai feel, off, about him was the boy's eyes. Not only were they red but they felt __**cold. **_

_Rai shivered, he hoped his brother never looked at him like that. The blond stopped thinking as he realized when he 'shivered' he hadn't move. Actually he couldn't move, Rai started to panic when he didn't start to move because he wasn't going the way he was trying to._

"_It's not the future I dream of anymore… only the past… that's where my dream lies." Rai heard the boy across from him say. He had no idea what the other boy was saying, but he felt... bad. Before he realized it words were coming out of his own mouth._

"_I won't let Orochimaru have you! I will stop you even if I have to break every bone in your body!" Rai heard himself say. While the three year old didn't know why he'd said that or what they were talking about he knew that, he had felt he meant what he'd said with everything he was. Rai watched through the twelve year old eyes of his father the fight that changed Naruto Uzumaki's life and would lead to Rai's own existence, without even realizing what he was seeing._

_Before the fight could end though the scene changed and the first thing Rai heard was his own voice, sounding slightly older._

"_Are you okay... scaredy-cat?" Rai heard himself tease the boy in front of him that again looked exactly like his brother but older with red eyes. Rai felt a small relief when he saw that though the other boy's eyes were still red they held some fear but no coldness to them. When he noticed why the raven hair boy look so scared though he tried to scream. Right behind him was a __**huge **__snake, somehow he was holding it back with two knife like things that he'd seen his father use before._

_That didn't make it any less scary though and as Rai realized he couldn't even scream he tried harder, fighting to wake up. This just had to be a bad dream, he'd never had one before but this just couldn't be real! Rai's scream turned into cries as he finally pushed himself back to the waking world._

Sasuke finally felt himself come back awake and gasped as tears started making their way down his face. The little raven jumped as Rai sat straight next to him and started crying quietly hugging his knees to himself. The little raven wiped some of his own tears and scooted closer to his brother; Rai noticed and did the same until they were touching side by side.

After a few minutes their crying calmed and they laid back down. Their daddy wasn't there or they would have gone to sleep in his bed but since they couldn't they just snuggled close to each other and held hands. Both boys had their eyes half opened but were clearly tired.

"Sasuke, I'm scared…" Rai whispered very quietly. Sasuke of course heard and wondered if they'd had the same dream but was too tired to think about it.

"Me too." The little raven replied instead. They both closed their eyes giving in to the rest they needed so late at night after their emotional outburst but kept their hand clasped between them so they knew they weren't alone.

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**AND CUT!**

**"Kami defend me from my friends; from my enemies I can defend myself." Unknown (I really like quotes)**

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**To my anonymous reviewers: **

**narutofan : Thanks for reminding me :P hope you like the new chapter ;)**

**suzanne : Thank you! I hope you liked the new chapter as much as the last :) And the is a reason for the 'Chan', 'no Chan, thing. Good eye, you will know later ;)**

**BTW: There is a poll for a new story on my profile, if you want to get a vote on what I do next check it out :P  
**


	10. Found

**This maybe the last chapter for a little while cause my school starts this week. **

**I know, I know, but I will still be working on it and will get the next chapter up asala **

**Till then, enjoy! :)**

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**Chapter 10: Found**

******"_May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't._" - General George S. Patton Jr.**

"So I came back here, before anyone could find them…" Naruto finished up his explanation hesitantly. Tsunade didn't move or say a word for several minutes, as she started at the ground in deep thought. The last Jinchuuriki and young father shifted his feet a few times as he started to squirm under the silent tension. Tsunade rubbed her right temple with one hand and sighed, the little blond idiot had left without permission and made no contact for three years but he hadn't actually hurt anyone.

Naruto left to protect the village, to keep his promise to Sakura, and to save a teammate. Could she really fault him for that? No, she decided, she couldn't but as the Hokage she still had to do something. The Hokage couldn't allow a shinobi, especially a Jinchuuriki at this time to just roam about outside of the protection of the village. Though he had been taking care of, and keeping himself hidden until now… Jiraiya's apprentice no doubt about it. Tsunade sighed and finally spoke, coming out of her thoughts, and keeping Naruto from a nervous breakdown.

"So you took both boys as your own… and have been taking care of them since their… birth?" Tsunade questioned to be sure of what she'd just heard. Naruto nodded, glad she finally said something, but didn't feel it was enough.

"They are mine." He assured. While unintentionally letting the female Hokage know he wasn't going to give them up. Tsunade pursed her lips and frowned. '_Naruto was right about one thing, if anyone ever found out about this, those boys would be in danger._' She thought.

"Do they know?" The blond Hokage asked. Naruto knew what she meant.

"No, they don't remember anything and I haven't told them anything about what happened." Naruto answered. The boys were still very young, there would be time to tell them later, when they were older. Tsunade nodded absently before letting out a breath and smirking softly.

"You've gotten yourself in a lot of trouble this time brat. You know I could have you imprisoned or executed for _half _the things you've done?" Tsunade said rhetorically. Naruto grimaced nervously, not knowing what she was getting at.

"Here is what we are going to do; you will be reinstated as a Konoha ninja and given the title of the Konoha Toad Sage Shinobi. Which means you will report directly to me, and only to me, from now on. And you will keep your past rank." Tsunade smirked as Naruto's eye twitched; really it was becoming a running joke that the kage level Jinchuuriki was still a Genin.

"And my sons'?" Naruto asked ignoring his rank, for now he had other things to worry about. Besides being a 'Sage Shinobi' sounded cool anyway. Tsunade smiled at his question and nodded, but still feeling a bit weird that the stubborn, brash kid she'd met only six years ago was now a father of two.

"For your first mission as a Konoha Sage Shinobi I am assigning you to protect and raise Sasuke and…" Tsunade trailed off, waiting for Naruto to fill it in since she had never gotten the other boy's name.

"Rai, Jiraiya." Naruto supplied without flinching. He'd been using the name for years so saying it didn't have as much effect on him anymore but he sure caught Tsunade's attention with it. She looked surprised, but the look quickly faded into acceptance and she gave a small sad smile as she closed her eyes.

"Right, your mission is to protect and raise Sasuke and Jiraiya Uzumaki outside the village until further notice. Do you accept?" She asked looking back to him. Naruto smirk coyly, as he finally got it.

"Yes." The blond sage spoke with resolve. He wouldn't have it any other way.

"There is one thing though Naruto, I need to see them. I need to see for myself that they are truly… _reborn_ in every way. That Sasuke truly doesn't remember, and won't grow back into who he was before. And that, Jiraiya doesn't have any… side effects from the Kyuubi." Tsunade said picking her words carefully. She had hesitated on Jiraiya's name but only for a moment. Naruto was nervous to show anyone Sasuke and even Rai but at this point he didn't have much of a choice. Besides if he was going to show them to someone he would rather it be someone he trusted.

"I can't bring them here, they'd be spotted." Naruto replied. If he had to show them to her, so be it, but he wasn't about to walk them straight into the one place people were most likely to recognize them. The Hokage nodded absently seeing his point.

"I will meet you in one week's time on the border of our summons." Tsunade replied. Naruto looked confused and she rolled her eyes. '_Some things never change._' She thought.

"The border between where my slug summons and your toad summons live. I can have my summons summon me too, brat." Tsunade dead panned.

"Oooh." Naruto sweat dropped, chuckling nervously. Tsunade rolled her eyes to the heavens praying the blond blockhead's kids wouldn't turn out as dense, before remembering something.

"Oh and Naruto you are never to teach or tell anyone about the jutsu you used on Sasuke. I want you to write it down and give it to me so I can secure it in a special vault, after that burn any notes you have on it. If anyone found out about that jutsu it would be total chaos." Tsunade said seriously. Naruto of course looked completely confused and surprised. The Hokage sighed.

"Naruto, you do realize that with a few tweaks to keep the memories, your jutsu could become a 'fountain of youth' jutsu or even eternal life… Heck it already is; just few would want to lose their memories for it; since it would kind of defeat the point." she stated seriously. By the look on Naruto's face it was clear he had never had the thought cross his mind. Soon his face turned to fear though as he realized he'd found a way to do what that evil snake, Orochimaru had tried to accomplish for fifty years… and he'd done it on accident…

"Breathe Naruto." Tsunade ordered, and Naruto suddenly realized he hadn't been breathing for almost a minute. Naruto took a few slow deep breaths before speaking.

"Why do you want a copy?" Naruto asked not wanting his jutsu to fall into the wrong hands.

"For the same reason you made it in the first place, a last resort." Tsunade answered easily, it was the standard answer. Nobody ever wanted to give up the secrets of their powerful, dangerous jutsu. "It will be put into the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing." Tsunade added so Naruto would feel more comfortable. Too bad it was the wrong thing to say. While Naruto was proud one of his own jutsu was important enough to be put in there, he knew something else about that scroll.

"Tsunade-baa-chan, I was able to steal that scroll when I was still an academy student…" Naruto dead panned. Tsunade blinked dumbfounded. She never had gotten to read the kid's whole file… and she had no idea what to say to that. Naruto shook his head.

"I'll make it and seal it in a safe place with the toads. So if you ever need it and I'm not here you can get it from them." Naruto stated. Tsunade wanted to argue but couldn't think of a good reason why that wouldn't work, or somewhere as safe that she could keep it that was still nearby. Oh well she'd figure it out later, it wasn't really the type of jutsu you used in a fight anyway.

"Alright." Tsunade sighed "I'll walk you to the west gate; I want you to take a roundabout way back and make sure you're not followed back to _them_. I _will_ see you and them in one week." Tsunade ordered. With a tone that left no arguments, if he wasn't there she'd hunt him down herself, screw regulations. "Do you know where you're going?" Tsunade asked walking him out of her office.

"Uhm," Naruto thought for a second. He had been just moving around wherever was low profile but now that he didn't have to hide anymore, at least not from everyone, he could visit some old friends. Not ninja friends, not with the boys, but maybe Shion in Demon Country or Princess Koyuki or maybe Inari in Wave? Uh, Inari is a bit too close to Konoha… maybe when things cool down. "not sure, might go see some old friends." He finished as he walked behind her out of the Hokage's tower.

In Suna a teenager with bright red hair watched two toddlers wrestle in his office, the Kazekage's office. Gaara's eye started to twitch, it had been almost three days and he was already developing thoughts of tying the toddlers up and throwing them in a closest until Naruto got back, and thinking they were… cute. Honestly he wasn't sure if he was more scared of what Naruto would do to him if he did the first or the very fact he was thinking the second.

"Give it back Sasuke! It's mine!" Rai yelled as he managed to roll back on top of Sasuke and reached for the small piece of candy Sasuke was holding onto like his life depended on it. The little raven held the precious piece of candy tightly to his chest as he tried to hold his twin back with the other hand.

"No! It's mine!" Sasuke shouted back and tried to roll them back over, but only managed to the side rolling Rai off him. The raven stood up quickly to get distance, and Rai did the same but had his hands slightly in front of him in a grabbing motion and jumped to tackle Sasuke back to the ground and grab the candy. Rai was caught in midair by sand. Sasuke turned to protect the candy and closed his eyes, after a few seconds he noticed nothing hit him and turned back.

The little raven smirked seeing Rai had been grabbed and not him. Sasuke quickly unwrapped the candy and tried to put it in his mouth before Gaara's sand caught him too. He didn't make it and the sand took the candy from him. Of course now neither of them was very happy.

"Hey that's mine!" Both boys shouted in perfect unison, the tone and timing exactly the same. Gaara shivered involuntarily, it sounded almost like an echo but not. Pushing away the thoughts of a Kage shivering at something two toddlers did, Gaara sighed.

"If you can't stop fighting neither of you will have it." Gaara spoke evenly. Sasuke and Rai's eyes widened fearing 'Uncle Gaara' would hurt their precious candy.

Miles away Zetsu was moving through the ground at high speeds towards Konoha. Every once in a while the plant clone would slow enough to check where the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was but never stopped in his pursuit. He was still maybe half an hour from the last Jinchuuriki. Once he finally found the Kyuubi he would defeat it, and take it back his master. Zetsu knew he was taking a risk to not report the Uzumaki's location but he believed it was a far greater risk that the boy would go into hiding again before his master could get to the boy.

Zetsu knew though that if that happened and he lost the Jinchuuriki again… his master would not be pleased. And probably would take out his anger on Zetsu. No, it was far less risk to acquire the boy himself and bring him back to the base. He saw the boy defeat Nagato but Zetsu had the power to suppress the boy's Kyuubi power, and knew that the Jinchuuriki needed time or a clone to channel that other energy he used on Nagato, if he fights carefully that should give him enough advantage to win.

Just outside Konoha Naruto stood facing Tsunade with his back towards where he needed to go. Tsunade had taken him a roundabout way to the gate and he was out of the village before anyone could see him. The Hokage was hesitant to let Naruto go, she trusted him but she couldn't just base this decision on what she felt, it concerned the whole village.

Naruto Uzumaki was their Jinchuuriki, the last one at that. Even if he was telling the whole truth it was risky to let him go where the Akatsuki could take him. On the other hand he had managed to keep himself hidden all this time, along with the very existence of two little boys. Tsunade sighed, her apprentice will be pissed, her 'advisers' will be pissed, not that she cared but they could be annoying. Then all of Naruto's comrade's will want answers… answers she couldn't give.

"You know you're a real pain in the ass right?" Tsunade asked rhetorically. Naruto opened his mouth to shout but realized he was putting her in a difficult spot and swiftly shut it. Instead of shouting he smirked, then grinned sheepishly putting his hands behind his head.

"Yeah, I know." Naruto conceded. She was still helping after all the stuff he pulled, he could admit to being a pain. Tsunade closed her eyes with a small smirk and shook her head in amused annoyance.

"Take the long way back brat." Tsunade said changing the subject, and giving the slang term for 'make sure no follows you and cover your tracks'. "And don't be late for our meeting." That was a definite order. Naruto saluted with a smile and turned around before jumping into the trees. Tsunade watched him go until she couldn't see him anymore and started her walk back to the office, taking the longest route she could. She was sure there would be many young ninja waiting at her door wanting answers.

Naruto had been jumping through the tree tops for almost twenty minutes going a bit slow since he was being extra careful not to break any branches on the trees and leave a trail. Still he estimated he would make it back to the Sand village a day before he told Gaara. He also left a clone or two behind him that would dispel in an hour, or if they saw someone following him.

'_So far so good._' Naruto thought just as tree routes jumped out of the tree he had just landed on to grab him. Naruto mentally kicked himself for the jinx as he quickly jumped away from the appendages. The blond's mind immediately went to Yamato, who was the only one he knew that could use wood technics. That thought left his mind quickly though as he saw a black and white creature appear right out of the branch he'd been standing on.

'_Of course a clone of the first Hokage could have the same ability._' Naruto thought, and that's exactly what it was. In the last few years Zetsu had been modified and was able to successfully manipulate the wood element. Naruto had landed on another tree branch after having to jump away from the one he was on quickly but decided it was probably safer on the ground and jumped off letting gravity pull him downward to the grass and earth.

Naruto's strong, deep blue eyes never left the Akatsuki member. He had been found, and he couldn't be found, his life depended on it. And if he were to die what would happen to his sons? No, it wasn't acceptable. He couldn't be found… but he was, which meant not only would he have to win but if he wanted to stay hidden, wanted his sons' to live and be happy… he would have to kill the Akatsuki member.

Naruto knew he had killed before; when he was younger there were a few bandits that he had killed on accident, at the time he didn't even know how weak their bodies were without chakra supporting them. The weird zombie heart thief guy from the Akatsuki he had taken down was going to die by his jutsu but Kakashi had actually finished him off. And Sasuke… But this wouldn't be an accident, and Kakashi wouldn't be there to take the kill, this would be him killing someone, on purpose.

The eighteen year old ninja took a calming breath, his eyes still never leaving the inhuman looking Akatsuki. He waited for his enemy to make the first move, something he never did even just a few years ago. He would do it, he knew he would have to kill one day; it was part of being a ninja. He just wished that day wasn't today.

"You are different." Zetsu observed the Jinchuuriki's cautiousness. "How have you hid for me for so long?" the plant being asked wanting to know. Naruto watched the clone without even blinking once as he answered.

"I didn't want to be found." The blond answered vaguely. Honestly he had tried to cover up the Kyuubi's chakra with his own as much as possible so that he wouldn't be found in case that was a way they could find him. He didn't know it worked until now though he probably should have seeing he hadn't been found. As for being 'different' he didn't know or really care to reply to that.

"Hmm." Zetsu hummed appraising his target he came to the belief he wouldn't get any better answer out of the boy at the moment and decided to attack. What he didn't know was that the change he had glimpsed, the caution and strength radiating off the young Jinchuuriki came from the children he protects. His children. Zetsu was about to face something more powerful than a raging tailed demon, a father fighting for his sons lives.

Zetsu moved first but Naruto was ready and jumped out of the way when branches grew unnaturally fast from the trees around him to attack. He didn't take time to stop when he felt one of the branches nick him, cutting through his arm rather deep. The nineteen year old ran with Zetsu close behind until he came to a small clearing that happened to be close. It was only maybe twenty feet across but it was better than behind him where the trees would give his enemy a better advantage. Though he knew the wood could still be used in the clearing it was a slight disadvantage to the Akatsuki member and Naruto would take what he could get, he wasn't taking any chances.

Zetsu watched the Jinchuuriki impassively before attacking again and he mentally noted that the boy was playing it smart, which was usual from what he knew of the nine tails container. The plant like man sunk into the ground leaving Naruto on high alert. Not knowing if he would have time but having no other choice Naruto stopped moving even the slightest muscle, shooting his senses out and pulling in nature chakra.

Naruto's eyes snapped open after a few seconds, they were yellow, his pupils horizontal, and the skin around his eyes colored red. He jumped backward ten feet still well inside the clearing, as soon as he jumped though sharp wooden spikes emerged from the ground impaling air. He had sensed Zetsu doing the jutsu just in time. The nineteen year old sage didn't even stop to breathe in relief, now that he could sense the Akatsuki member Naruto knew he was getting ready to attack again, and he was running out of time.

As soon as he entered sage mode the clock started, he had maybe five minutes before the natural chakra left him. Knowing this Naruto took the offensive. Jumping up slightly the teenage toad sage aimed a hard punch laced in natural energy at the ground right where he sensed Zetsu. The ground exploded, as if Sakura herself had hit it.

Zetsu was stunned, he had underestimated the boy. He knew of the abilities the Jinchuuriki possessed in 'sage mode' from watching the fight between the boy and Pain four years ago, but he never thought the boy could do it so fast. He had specifically tried to not give the boy time to use the technic because he knew he would be out matched.

He wasn't the strong force of Akatsuki, or the brains, he was simply the spy. He gathered information and brought it back to his master, to be used in whatever way his master wished. Really now that he thought about it, he had been foolish to go after the Uzumaki boy alone. It was just that he didn't want to disappoint his master again after three years if the boy were to disappeared again.

Naruto didn't think twice and pressed his advantage with Zetsu lying in the center of the crater he had just made. He created three clones, one went to pick up Zetsu and slammed him on the ground above the crater before the plant clone could recover enough to cause any problems. The only two remaining clones put their hands over the original Naruto's and within seconds a large blue shuriken sphere was held above the blond's head spinning rapidly. The sound humming off it vibrated with power that Naruto hadn't heard in three years…

The teenage sage hesitated for less than a second as he realized he was really about to kill someone. Genetic clone experiment or not, Naruto's heart retracted from the idea. The images of his sons' innocent faces flashed in his mind though and he knew he was running out of time, both for his sage chakra and Zetsu staying down and out of the ground. The two clones that helped to make the jutsu dispelled as the third clone punched Zetsu again before holding him up.

Naruto hardened his heart and threw his most destructive jutsu straight at the Akatsuki tracker and his own clone. Zetsu after being given a moment to recover a little lifted his head up at the sound of the humming power that filled the air, to see the completed wind **Rasen-Shuriken** headed straight for him.

Zetsu struggled trying to sink into the ground and protect himself from the attack as much as possible but the shadow clone behind him held him around both his arms pulling him up, his feet just a few inches short of the ground which could save him. In some sort of self perseveration instinct he didn't know he had Zetsu threw his head back into the shadow clone's head making it dispel.

As the plant like man touched the ground he was already sinking into it but it was too late. The **Rasen-Shurikin **expanded and hit him head on with only half of him sunk into the ground. Zetsu's body exploded in pain but thankfully, for him it only lasted a moment. Zetsu was dead before his body was completely destroyed by the **Rasen-Shurikin,** cut into so many pieces nothing left could be seen with the naked eye.

Naruto's breath was slightly heavy but his eyes and other senses never wavered as he waited for the dust to settle. He was on high alert, thinking his enemy could have escaped when he felt his clone dispel just before his jutsu impacted. It was so close though he was sure it would hit, but he needed to know for sure before he let his guard down.

The dust settled and Naruto spotted the massive trench in front of him. He eyed it carefully before walking towards it slowly still trying to use his sage chakra to sense the Akatsuki member, which the chakra signature had disappeared when his jutsu hit… but maybe he could hide it? After a few minutes of looking over every inches of where the Akatsuki tracker had been Naruto felt his sage chakra leave him.

Naruto breathed out a few heavy breaths sweating, but he was okay. He knew he'd gotten lucky, that Zetsu guy must have underestimated him. Naruto took one more deep breath and let it out slowly. Deciding that if the guy wasn't dead he probably would have attacked as soon as his sage mode ran out of time, Naruto started walking towards the trees, though not in the most direct route to Suna.

If any of the other Akatsuki were nearby he wasn't going to lead them to his sons, he would take the long way and make sure he wasn't followed. Before he could exit the clearing he spotted a small glint on the ground. After scanning around himself one more time he walked over cautiously.

When Naruto saw what it was his eyes widened slightly. He crouched down to get a better look at a silver ring lying on the ground. The ring held the kanji for boar, Naruto picked it up carefully he knew he'd seen rings like it on the Akatsuki before, and figured it must be Zetsu's. Looking around one more time Naruto stuffed it in his pocket and took off into the trees, slightly more sure the Akatsuki member was really dead.

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**AND CUT!  
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** narutofan :Thanks for reviewing! **

**suzanne : Glad I could make you laugh, the thought of Gaara babysitting is just funny all around XD**

**Alaina : I'm glad I made Sasuke likable to you, really I think he could have been a good person if everything just wasn't going against him. Besides it wasn't like Naruto was going to give up on him ;P**

**Thanks to everyone that reviewed, they really encourage me to keep writing :) **

**Oh and if you were wondering the POLL on my page is still open but I am already working on a Naruto/Bleach fic now,**

**and if there is enough ppl that want Naruto/Inuyasha crossover I might do one of those too.  
**


	11. Just made it

**I know this took awhile but it is finally here sooo, have at it! :D  
**

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**Chapter 11: Just made it**

Naruto made his way quickly and quietly into the sand village, the guards simply nodding as they let him through. It had taken a little longer than he thought to get back after Zetsu slowed him down and covering his tracks more thoroughly than usual but it still hadn't been more than a week since he told Gaara he'd be back… at least not for another fifteen minutes.

The blond stuck to the shadows, not wanting to be seen and made his way to the Kazekage's house. The guards outside let him in without a word; though Naruto could have sworn one of them smirk for a second. He'd find out why once he got inside. Not bothering to knock at the late hour the blond let himself in after standing still enough to activate spread his chakra and senses out as if to enter sage mode. However he didn't pull in any chakra, as he had learned over the years that he could sense out other's chakras without fully entering sage mode.

He sensed both his sons and Gaara in one room close by and went there pushing the door open quietly Naruto looked in and promptly smiled widely. Gaara was sprawled out on one of the twin sized beds with a story book on his chest fast asleep. Rai was curled up on Gaara's left side, his blond spikes gentle touching the redhead's chin as the boy's head rested on his shoulder, and Gaara's arm wrapped almost protectively around him.

Sasuke was on Gaara's other side a little higher up than his brother but his head still resting on the Kazekage's other shoulder, like he had been trying to look over and see the book rather than trying to cuddle up to him like little Rai. Naruto was careful to not make sound as he took his backpack off and pulled out his camera, that had all the boys baby pictures on it… he still hadn't developed them.

The teenager was going to turn the flash off but was afraid he wouldn't get a good picture. So he lined up the shot and clicked. Faster than most could see Gaara's eyes shot open and his sand caught the figure at the end of the bed. The lights went on, as Gaara had his sand flick the switch, but not a sound was made as the boys were still fast asleep. Gaara blinked tiredly as he saw it was his friend and lowered the blond down to the floor… without ever seeing a camera.

"Hey." Naruto whispered. He had grinned widely when Gaara caught him, he'd had just enough time to put his camera back in his bag. Gaara sat up carefully untangling himself from the two sleeping children before standing.

"Hey, how'd it go?" Gaara asked quietly leading the way out. Naruto ignored the gesture to leave for a moment and went over to his sons. He manipulated their sleeping forms gently until they were under the covers and caressed their hair lovingly.

"Goodnight Sasuke, goodnight Rai-chan." Naruto whispered getting up and following Gaara out, he cracked the door behind him, so that it let in light and he could hear inside better. Gaara though had noted his friend had used the 'chan' suffix with Rai again but not with Sasuke. It reminded him to ask about it.

"Why do you do that?" Gaara asked knowing Naruto wouldn't probably know what he was talking about, but it would open the subject. Naruto turned to the redhead questioning with his eyes.

"What?" he asked back, not knowing what he'd done or at least not knowing what Gaara had thought he had done.

"You seem to always use the 'chan' suffix with Rai but not with Sasuke. Is it because of how he looks?" Gaara asked. Naruto had claimed them both as his sons' but things are never that simple, especially between Naruto and Sasuke. Gaara knew Naruto would, and had done everything for Sasuke but he also knew that it hurt his friend as well. Sometimes he wondered if all Naruto did for Sasuke was worth it to him.

Naruto was quite for a moment he knew he didn't called Sasuke, 'chan'. He had tried to in the beginning when Sasuke was a baby, but as he got bigger he stopped. Naruto sighed.

"Kind of. I used to call him 'chan' but… as he got older he started looking more like Sasuke and I just- I don't know. I kept thinking how annoyed Sasuke always was when I teased him by calling him that… Eventually I dropped the suffix." Naruto let out a breath as they sat at the kitchen table.

"He is Sasuke, Naruto." Gaara said carefully and Naruto's eyes met his. "He isn't an adult, or a ninja, and maybe he won't even turn out to like or hate the same things, but he is Sasuke." Gaara paused thinking over his next words. "Even so he's a child, how do you think he feels always hearing you call Rai in such a way but never him?" Gaara asked making a good point.

Naruto looked stunned, would that hurt Sasuke's feelings? He didn't want to do that, Sasuke is still young he might have not noticed yet but he would. Then what? Would he be mad at him? Jealous of Rai? Would he think he wasn't loved as much? Naruto looked down feeling guilty about what he had done, he never wanted Sasuke to feel that way, he wanted to be the best father, better than his own at the very least, and hopefully better than Sasuke's, but had he already messed it up in just three years?

"I didn't think about that. I… don't want him to feel bad. I just…" Naruto trailed off and sighed dejectedly. "You're right; I know you are; it's just… hard." Naruto admitted. Gaara nodded slightly, trusting his friend would fix the problem.

"So you're back, I trust everything went well with the Hokage?" Gaara redirected the conversation which Naruto was grateful for, though he didn't realize at the time Gaara did it for his benefit.

Elsewhere Tobi stood up startled as the Zetsu clones beneath him started disintegrating, their bodies flattening until they turned to dust and were pulled into the light wind. One red and one purple rippled eye narrowed in calculating anger at the sight of his creations. He knew that the cloned Zetsus' would only die in such a way if the original clone of the Shodaime had been killed.

He had spent many years cultivating the Zetsu clones, and the original Zetsu was his one and only spy, this was a damaging setback. He had not made Zetsu to fight however he hadn't created something as useful as Zetsu to be weak either. Whoever destroyed his creation must have been strong but who would be strong enough to defeat Zetsu without the clone simply running away before the deed could be done?

Tobi seethed, his plan had been steadily falling to piece ever since the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, Naruto Uzumaki disappeared. And he still didn't know why or how the boy had vanished either. Zetsu had reported sensing the Jinchuuriki a while back but by the time he could get close the boy simply was gone again, without a trace like he'd never been there in the first place.

Even before that the boy had become… a nuisance, killing off some of Akatsuki's members. Along with a few others from the boy's age group. His teammate Leaf Jounin Sakura Haruno, an old classmate and also current Leaf Jounin Shikamaru Nara, and of course Sasuke Uchiha who killed Itachi and Deidara, but Sasuke's share had mostly been part of his own plan. Now though it seemed he was the only one left of his organization; that was troubling.

Without Zetsu he had no army; however he did have most the tailed beast. He only needed the last Jinchuuriki… Maybe after a few preparations, it was time he tracked down the elusive Jinchuuriki himself.

In Konoha Tsunade stared blankly at her office full of ninja who were given the title of the 'rookie nine' argued and fired questions at her and their comrades left and right. Along with Gai's old team and all of their sensei, even Iruka from the academy. Most the sensei were just observing though despite that fact she knew they had many of the same questions as their students. Finally she had enough.

"QUIET!" Tsunade shouted the order over the mostly still teenage ninja. Many of them flinched, including the silent Sakura. She hadn't said much to anyone since Naruto told her Sasuke was dead. But she looked up to hear what her teacher had to say about her other teammate. Ino stood beside her in silent support.

"By my order Naruto Uzumaki has been assigned to a long term mission outside of the village." Tsunade paused, glaring at the few who opened their mouths to interrupt her, they shut their mouths quickly. "For _**classified**_reasons, he will remain outside the village walls performing this mission until further notice. You are _**not**_ to go looking for him without my consent, if for some reason any of you happen to see or hear about him you are _**not**_ to follow him. And will inform me and only me on anything concerning him."

"Is this understood?" Tsunade spoke in a commanding tone, though even with that she was met with about twenty or more defiant eyes, she couldn't really tell with some of them but she was pretty sure they all were feeling the same thing. Tsunade sighed.

"Look, I understand you want answers and finding him after all this time you thought you were going to get them, but you're going to have to trust him a little longer. He has his reasons for leaving, for not telling anyone, and for not coming back for so long, but you can't know them yet. When it is safe he will return." Tsunade paused, grateful that the shinobi in front of her looked less ready to jump out the window and drag Naruto back.

"Naruto Uzumaki is now the Toad Sage of Konoha, and when it's safe you will be told what he is doing, until then for his safety and yours, you can't know." She had given them little, just enough that they knew there was reasons, and that it was for the wellbeing of their comrade and friend; that hopefully would be enough to keep them from doing anything foolish.

"Dismissed." Tsunade practically sighed. They hesitated for a moment before all the younger ninja grudgingly shuffled out the door. Their sensei fallowing close behind. The door shut with a soft click and Tsunade looked up to see that one of them hadn't left.

Kakashi didn't say a word as he walked up and stood in front of her desk. He was acting like his usual self except his lone eye was focused on the Hokage though it still was half open, almost lazily staring at her. After a minute of neither saying anything Tsunade turned her eyes away and huffed.

"He is fine, Kakashi. His mission isn't dangerous, unless the Akatsuki finds him. Which he has been doing well to avoid so far, and it is important, especially to him that no one finds him until his mission is completed." Tsunade rolled her eyes as the copy ninja eye smiled at her.

"How long?" Kakashi asked in his usual tone. Tsunade frowned thinking about it. The whole thing started three years ago, so both boys would be three. How long would it be before they could protect themselves?

"…Years." Tsunade answered, not wanting to think how many herself. Hopefully it wouldn't be as long as she thought. Because even the two boys being thirteen was pushing it, and that was ten years…

"He will be giving reports, of course every couple of weeks." She said more to reassure herself than Kakashi. She would make a point when she saw the brat about sending her updates, as often as possible. Kakashi's movements didn't change but the slight stiffness showed he was displeased about his student's long term leave. He nodded slowly.

"You will tell me when you receive these updates?" Kakashi spoke in a more serious tone than before but not in any way disrespectful. Which Tsunade wondered how he could do that. Thinking about the question, she slowly nodded.

"I will tell you when they come, so you know he is still alright, but I can't reveal the information he sends to you without first making sure it won't hinder his mission." Tsunade agreed. Reluctantly Kakashi nodded again before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. Tsunade groaned as she rubbed her temples, she stood up and quickly left before anyone could stop her.

The advisers would be tomorrow's problem. For now she was going home for a long hot shower and some much desired sleep.

In Suna Naruto yawned and rubbed his eyes. He had explained to Gaara everything that happened when he saw Tsunade and when he had to meet her. Gaara of course listened patiently but as the blond yawned he remembered his friend was probably tired. The new toad sage of Konoha had one more thing to tell him though.

"Something else happened though, after Tsunade-baa-chan saw me off Zetsu found me about an hour out of Konoha." Naruto explained as he pulled a purple ring out of his pocket and put it on the table for Gaara to see. The redhead gave his full attention when he heard the name Zetsu. They said nothing for a moment as Gaara examined the ring.

"You defeated him?" Gaara finally asked though the fact Naruto had the ring and was here, alive meant that he had. Naruto didn't turn away but seemed to grow even more tired.

"I killed him." Naruto replied softly. Not quite looking away but not looking his friend in the face anymore either. Gaara put the ring down and nodded slowly. He had killed many before, even as a child, because of all the assassins his own father sent after him. But he knew Naruto wasn't the type of ninja or person that likes to kill; even when he knows has to.

"So then the Akatsuki is down to Madara Uchiha, or Tobi, I guess we're calling him now." Gaara changed the direction of the conversation. Hopefully that will keep his friend's mind from going too deep into dark thoughts. "Either Akatsuki will lay low and regroup, or Tobi will come out… and most likely come after you." Gaara intoned his thoughts, growing concerned.

"…And I have to be ready." Naruto said after a moment as he moved the ring in between his fingers on the table. Naruto took a deep breath and rubbed his eye with his other hand, slouching down in his chair. Gaara sighed.

"Are you hurt?" Gaara asked looking Naruto over better. Noticing nothing but the tear in Naruto's jacket on the shoulder, which he'd noticed before. Naruto saw him looking at the rip in his clothes were there was still dried blood and rolled his shoulder.

"No," Naruto sighed, grateful somebody cared enough to ask. "I went into sage mode after he nicked me, so it healed before the fight was even over." He explained rolling his shoulder one more time just to be sure. Gaara nodded, then stood.

"Alright, well it's late and you're tired. You can have any room in the house, and we can talk in the morning." Gaara turned to the hall going towards the bedrooms. Naruto stood and followed him tiredly, grateful for a place to rest; he had been running all night and the last two days. Naruto stopped in front of the room his sons were in and turned to Gaara.

"Thanks for this Gaara." Naruto said with a small smile and one hand on the door knob. Gaara nodded a little ways down the hall with his hand on his own door knob. "See ya in the morning." The blond called back quietly as he went in to the boy's room to sleep in the bed they weren't using. Gaara went into his own room with a small smile on his face.

Naruto stopped by where his sons were sleeping and watched them for a moment. Just watching them sleep, they were so young and innocent. He brushed back each boy's hair before going to sit on the bed on the other side of the room and lying down. As he closed his eyes, he knew he didn't regret killing Zetsu. He and his sons were one step closer to being safe because of it. Now all he had to do was deal with the Akatsuki leader.

Then at least the all the 'S-class' threats would be taken care of. After that he just had to worry about the boys being accepted. Hopefully Sasuke hadn't made too many enemies. Naruto sighed as he fell asleep, maybe there would always something that came up but for now, his sons were sleeping peacefully close by.

The next morning Naruto was very rudely awaked by two separate attacks that hit him at almost the same time. Thankfully before he could throw the attacking beings off of him there was a twin shout that let him know he was safe… sort of.

"Daddy!" Sasuke and Rai yelled as they crashed gracelessly into Naruto chest and stomach. "You're back!" Sasuke chanted a few times excitedly. "Where did you go? I wanted to come!" Rai whined slightly hurt he'd been left behind. Naruto groan throwing an arm over his eyes as his sons decided to bounce on top of him. He was still tired, but he could see a little light through his closed eye lids so it was at least morning.

"Get up!" Sasuke and Rai called childishly at the same time and bounced more forcefully. Naruto scrunch up his face and still without opening his eyes turned over grabbing both boys in one arm and rolling to his side with them now on the bed Sasuke half on top of Rai.

"No." Naruto replied stubbornly. He knew there was no way he was getting back to sleep, but he just had to mess with them for waking him up. "Be good teddy bears. It's night, night time." Naruto mumbled while trying to cuddle both of them like actual stuffed toys. The twins groaned simultaneously.

"Noooooo." Rai whined and even Sasuke sounded whiny as he said the same thing moments after. Naruto smirked as they squirmed trying to get away. Honestly they had no chance of going anywhere until he let them go. After maybe a minute of trying and their frustration growing Sasuke huffed crossing his arms over his little chest.

"Let go!" Rai shouted not ready to give up yet as he kicked out frustrated.

"OW!" Sasuke yelped as his brother's foot hit him. "That hurt." The three year old raven whimper, tears already gathering in his eyes. Naruto had sat straight up like a shot when he heard Sasuke yelp. He pulled Rai off and set him on the floor before picking Sasuke off the bed and onto his lap.

"Sasuke, are you okay?" Naruto asked gently as he held the small boy close and stroked his dark hair. Sasuke sniffled into his father's shirt and nodded that he was okay but made no move to leave his hug. Rai looked at his brother worriedly from the ground.

"I'm sorry S'suke." Rai sniffed, close to crying himself. Naruto looked over at the small blond and sighed. He bent down and pulled Rai back up on the bed next to him.

"You gotta be more careful Rai-chan." Naruto spoke softly and hugged the boy with one arm as he still held Sasuke in the other. "I probably should have let you go before you got so frustrated though, so it's partly my fault too, I guess." The nineteen year old admitted after a moment.

A few years ago he would never of admitted to being wrong about something like that, he was too stubborn and prideful, but caring for two living being that depend on him for everything changed him enough to at least admit it to them. Seeing as they were both physically okay though and just upset Naruto knew it was time to cheer them up.

"Come on guys! I bet you're hungry." Naruto stated standing up, but not putting Sasuke down. "Let's see what we can get for breakfast." The older blond walked out the bedroom door with Rai right behind him, hurrying to not be left behind.

Back in Konoha Tsunade lay awake in her bed not wanting to get up. It had been two days, almost three since Naruto had returned, and the meeting with the council had gone about as well as she'd expected, which wasn't good. She had of course left out many things, actually most everything Naruto told her she'd left out and the parts the she did share were… slightly, altered.

The council now thought Naruto was reestablishing Jiraiya's old spy network. That was pretty much the only explanation that could cover him moving around outside the village for so long when he was such an important piece in the fight against the Akatsuki. And it was barely an excuse at that, and now she would have to get Naruto to do that on top of taking care of two young boys. Luckily with his clones he could be in more than one place at a time.

The old Sannin groaned as she rolled out of bed, tomorrow she had to meet with Naruto so she had to get up and gather everything Jiraiya left about his spy network. Naruto would need it to reconnect with the old contacts. Hopefully Jiraiya had introduced some of them to the boy when they were out training.

On the other side of Konoha in a secluded training grounds just about everyone Naruto knew was gathered and discussing what they were, or were not going to do. After about a half hour of a lot of ideas but no real results Shikamaru lazily put in his opinion.

"Look, how about if we see or hear about him on a mission we figure out what to do about the information then. This is getting us nowhere." Shikamaru intoned calmly. The others looked at each other but weren't sure as so many questions ran through they're heads. The one that was the most consistent was 'What if someone heard something and didn't tell them?' But they were ninja and were used to not always having all the information they wanted, usually for 'classified' reasons.

Eventually they all reluctantly agreed. They intended to share the information with all the others but kept in mind what the Hokage said and that they may have to keep from telling everyone what they may see for the wellbeing of Naruto and maybe even the village itself. All in all not a very satisfying day. On the edge of the gathering ninja though were three younger Genin ninja.

Konohamaru scowled at the others, he wasn't really mad at them though, he was just becoming increasingly frustrated. They had finally found his Naruto-nii and even got him back in the village and he didn't even get to see his older brother figure! It was great Naruto-nii was no longer in danger of becoming a rogue ninja and was now some great Toad sage of Konoha. However he didn't care he would find his Naruto-nii… somehow.

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******AND CUT! "**Best friends just won't leave your side" -Blink182

**To narutofan : thanks! And ya but he is going to have a lot to do ;)  
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**And thanks to all my other reviewers, I try to answer all your questions/comments (unless you've block PMs)  
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**cause then I can't ^_^' anyway if any of you would like a certain scene just ask and if I like it I'll put it in! :D (and credit you for it of course)  
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**In other news if you've not noticed I've decided to post my Naruto/Bleach fic, as it won the poll. However there were so many votes for a Naruto/Inuyasha fic that I've adopted one and am turning it into my own, but that one may take awhile.  
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